The Vision of Dante Alighiere or Hell, Purgatory and Paradise

by Dante Alighieri

  v. 124. Cieldauro.] Boetius was buried at Pavia, in the

  monastery of St. Pietro in Ciel d'oro.

  v. 126. Isidore.] He was Archbishop of Seville during forty

  years, and died in 635. See Mariana, Hist. 1. vi. c. 7.

  Mosheim, whose critical opinions in general must be taken with

  some allowance, observes that "his grammatical theological, and

  historical productions, discover more learning and pedantry, than

  judgment and taste."

  v. 127. Bede.] Bede, whose virtues obtained him the appellation

  of the Venerable, was born in 672 at Wearmouth and Jarrow, in the

  bishopric of Durham, and died in 735. Invited to Rome by Pope

  Sergius I., he preferred passing almost the whole of his life in

  the seclusion of a monastery. A catalogue of his numerous

  writings may be seen in Kippis's Biographia Britannica, v. ii.

  v. 127. Richard.] Richard of St. Victor, a native either of

  Scotland or Ireland, was canon and prior of the monastery of that

  name at Paris and died in 1173. "He was at the head of the

  Mystics in this century and his treatise, entitled the Mystical

  Ark, which contains as it were the marrow of this kind of

  theology, was received with the greatest avidity." Maclaine's

  Mosheim, v. iii. cent. xii. p. 2. c. 2. 23.

  v. 132. Sigebert.] "A monk of the abbey of Gemblours who was in

  high repute at the end of the eleventh, and beginning of the

  twelfth century." Dict. de Moreri.

  v. 131. The straw-litter'd street.] The name of a street in

  Paris: the "Rue du Fouarre."

  v. 136. The spouse of God.] The church.

  CANTO XI

  v. 1. O fond anxiety of mortal men.] Lucretius, 1. ii. 14

  O miseras hominum mentes ! O pectora caeca

  Qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque periclis

  Degitur hoc aevi quodcunque est!

  v. 4. Aphorisms,] The study of medicine.

  v. 17. 'The lustre.] The spirit of Thomas Aquinas

  v. 29. She.] The church.

  v. 34. One.] Saint Francis.

  v. 36. The other.] Saint Dominic.

  v. 40. Tupino.] A rivulet near Assisi, or Ascesi where Francis

  was born in 1182.

  v. 40. The wave.] Chiascio, a stream that rises in a mountain

  near Agobbio, chosen by St. Ubaldo for the place of his

  retirement.

  v. 42. Heat and cold.] Cold from the snow, and heat from the

  reflection of the sun.

  v. 45. Yoke.] Vellutello understands this of the vicinity of

  the mountain to Nocera and Gualdo; and Venturi (as I have taken

  it) of the heavy impositions laid on those places by the

  Perugians. For GIOGO, like the Latin JUGUM, will admit of either

  sense.

  v. 50. The east.]

  This is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

  Shakespeare.

  v. 55. Gainst his father's will.] In opposition to the wishes

  of his natural father

  v. 58. In his father's sight.] The spiritual father, or bishop,

  in whose presence he made a profession of poverty.

  v. 60. Her first husband.] Christ.

  v. 63. Amyclas.] Lucan makes Caesar exclaim, on witnessing the

  secure poverty of the fisherman Amyclas:

  --O vite tuta facultas

  Pauperis, angustique lares! O munera nondum

  Intellecta deum! quibus hoc contingere templis,

  Aut potuit muris, nullo trepidare tumultu,

  Caesarea pulsante manu?

  Lucan Phars. 1. v. 531.

  v. 72. Bernard.] One of the first followers of the saint.

  v. 76. Egidius.] The third of his disciples, who died in 1262.

  His work, entitled Verba Aurea, was published in 1534, at Antwerp

  See Lucas Waddingus, Annales Ordinis Minoris, p. 5.

  v. 76. Sylvester.] Another of his earliest associates.

  v. 83. Pietro Bernardone.] A man in an humble station of life

  at Assisi.

  v. 86. Innocent.] Pope Innocent III.

  v. 90. Honorius.] His successor Honorius III who granted

  certain privileges to the Franciscans.

  v. 93. On the hard rock.] The mountain Alverna in the Apennine.

  v. 100. The last signet.] Alluding to the stigmata, or marks

  resembling the wounds of Christ, said to have been found on the

  saint's body.

  v. 106. His dearest lady.] Poverty.

  v. 113. Our Patriarch ] Saint Dominic.

  v. 316. His flock ] The Dominicans.

  v. 127. The planet from whence they split.] "The rule of their

  order, which the Dominicans neglect to observe."

  CANTO XII

  v. 1. The blessed flame.] Thomas Aquinas

  v. 12. That voice.] The nymph Echo, transformed into the

  repercussion of the voice.

  v. 25. One.] Saint Buonaventura, general of the Franciscan

  order, in which he effected some reformation, and one of the most

  profound divines of his age. "He refused the archbishopric of

  York, which was offered him by Clement IV, but afterwards was

  prevailed on to accept the bishopric of Albano and a cardinal's

  hat. He was born at Bagnoregio or Bagnorea, in Tuscany, A.D.

  1221, and died in 1274." Dict. Histor. par Chaudon et Delandine.

  Ed. Lyon. 1804.

  v. 28. The love.] By an act of mutual courtesy, Buonaventura,

  a Franciscan, is made to proclaim the praises of St. Dominic,

  as Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican, has celebrated those of St.

  Francis.

  v. 42. In that clime.] Spain.

  v. 48. Callaroga.] Between Osma and Aranda, in Old Castile,

  designated by the royal coat of arms.

  v. 51. The loving minion of the Christian faith.] Dominic was

  born April 5, 1170, and died August 6, 1221. His birthplace,

  Callaroga; his father and mother's names, Felix and Joanna, his

  mother's dream; his name of Dominic, given him in consequence of

  a vision by a noble matron, who stood sponsor to him, are all

  told in an anonymous life of the saint, said to be written in the

  thirteenth century, and published by Quetif and Echard,

  Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum. Par. 1719. fol. t 1. p. 25.

  These writers deny his having been an inquisitor, and indeed the

  establishment of the inquisition itself before the fourth Lateran

  council. Ibid. p. 88.

  v. 55. In the mother's womb.] His mother, when pregnant with

  him, is said to have dreamt that she should bring forth a white

  and black dog, with a lighted torch in its mouth.

  v. 59. The dame.] His godmother's dream was, that he had one

  star in his forehead, and another in the nape of his neck, from

  which he communicated light to the east and the west.

  v. 73. Felix.] Felix Gusman.

  v. 75. As men interpret it.] Grace or gift of the Lord.

  v. 77. Ostiense.] A cardinal, who explained the decretals.

  v. 77. Taddeo.] A physician, of Florence.

  v. 82. The see.] "The apostolic see, which no longer continues

  its wonted liberality towards the indigent and deserving; not

  indeed through its own fault, as its doctrines are still the

  same, but through the fault of the pontiff, who is seated in it."

  v. 85. No dispensation.] Dominic did not ask license to

  compound for the use of unjust acq
uisitions, by dedicating a part

  of them to pious purposes.

  v. 89. In favour of that seed.] "For that seed of the divine

  word, from which have sprung up these four-and-twenty plants,

  that now environ thee."

  v. 101. But the track.] "But the rule of St. Francis is already

  deserted and the lees of the wine are turned into mouldiness."

  v. 110. Tares.] He adverts to the parable of the taxes and the

  wheat.

  v. 111. I question not.] "Some indeed might be found, who still

  observe the rule of the order, but such would come neither from

  Casale nor Acquasparta:" of the former of which places was

  Uberto, one master general, by whom the discipline had been

  relaxed; and of the latter, Matteo, another, who had enforced it

  with unnecessary rigour.

  v. 121. -Illuminato here,

  And Agostino.]

  Two among the earliest followers of St. Francis.

  v. 125. Hugues of St. Victor.] A Saxon of the monastery of

  Saint Victor at Paris, who fed ill 1142 at the age of

  forty-four. "A man distinguished by the fecundity of his genius,

  who treated in his writings of all the branches of sacred and

  profane erudition that were known in his time, and who composed

  several dissertations that are not destitute of merit."

  Maclaine's Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. v. iii . cent. xii. p. 2. 2. 23.

  I have looked into his writings, and found some reason for

  this high eulogium.

  v. 125. Piatro Mangiadore.] "Petrus Comestor, or the Eater,

  born at Troyes, was canon and dean of that church, and afterwards

  chancellor of the church of Paris. He relinquished these

  benefices to become a regular canon of St. Victor at Paris, where

  he died in 1198. Chaudon et Delandine Dict. Hist. Ed. Lyon.

  1804. The work by which he is best known, is his Historia

  Scolastica, which I shall have occasion to cite in the Notes to

  Canto XXVI.

  v. 126. He of Spain.] "To Pope Adrian V succeeded John XXI a

  native of Lisbon a man of great genius and extraordinary

  acquirements, especially in logic and in medicine, as his books,

  written in the name of Peter of Spain (by which he was known

  before he became Pope), may testify. His life was not much

  longer than that of his predecessors, for he was killed at

  Viterbo, by the falling in of the roof of his chamber, after he

  had been pontiff only eight months and as many days.

  A.D. 1277. Mariana, Hist. de Esp. l. xiv. c. 2.

  v. 128. Chrysostom.] The eloquent patriarch of Constantinople.

  v. 128. Anselmo.] "Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, was born

  at Aosta, about 1034, and studied under Lanfrane at the monastery

  of Bec, in Normandy, where he afterwards devoted himself to a

  religious life, in his twenty-seventh year. In three years he

  was made prior, and then abbot of that monastery! from whence he

  was taken, in 1093, to succeed to the archbishopric, vacant by

  the death of Lanfrane. He enjoyed this dignity till his death, in

  1109, though it was disturbed by many

  dissentions with William II and Henry I respecting the immunities

  and investitures. There is much depth and precisian in his

  theological works." Tiraboschi, Stor. della Lett. Ital. t. iii.

  1. iv. c. 2. Ibid. c. v. "It is an observation made by many

  modern writers, that the demonstration of the existence of God,

  taken from the idea of a Supreme Being, of which Des Cartes is

  thought to be the author, was so many ages back discovered and

  brought to light by Anselm. Leibnitz himself makes

  the remark, vol. v. Oper. p. 570. Edit. Genev. 1768."

  v. 129. Donatus.] Aelius Donatus, the grammarian, in the fourth

  century, one of the preceptors of St. Jerome.

  v. 130. Raban.] "Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mentz, is

  deservedly placed at the head of the Latin writers of this age."

  Mosheim, v. ii. cent. ix. p. 2 c. 2. 14.

  v. 131. Joachim.] Abbot of Flora in Calabria; "whom the

  multitude revered as a person divinely inspired and equal to the

  most illustrious prophets of ancient times." Ibid. v. iii.

  cent. xiii. p. 2. c. 2. 33.

  v. 134. A peer.] St. Dominic.

  CANTO XIII

  v. 1. Let him.] "Whoever would conceive the sight that now

  presented itself to me, must imagine to himself fifteen of the

  brightest stars in heaven, together with seven stars of Arcturus

  Major and two of Arcturus Minor, ranged in two circles, one

  within the other, each resembling the crown of Ariadne, and

  moving round m opposite directions."

  v. 21. The Chiava.] See Hell, Canto XXIX. 45.

  v. 29. That luminary.] Thomas Aquinas.

  v. 31. One ear.] "Having solved one of thy questions, I proceed

  to answer the other. Thou thinkest, then, that Adam and Christ

  were both endued with all the perfection of which the human

  nature is capable and therefore wonderest at what has been said

  concerning Solomon"

  v. 48. That.] "Things corruptible and incorruptible, are only

  emanations from the archetypal idea residing in the Divine mind."

  v. 52. His brightness.] The Word: the Son of God.

  v. 53. His love triune with them.] The Holy Ghost.

  v. 55. New existences.] Angels and human souls.

  v. 57. The lowest powers.] Irrational life and brute matter.

  v. 62. Their wax and that which moulds it.] Matter, and the

  virtue or energy that acts on it.

  v. 68. The heav'n.] The influence of the planetary bodies.

  v. 77. The clay.] Adam.

  v. 88. Who ask'd.] "He did not desire to know the number of the

  stars, or to pry into the subtleties of metaphysical and

  mathematical science: but asked for that wisdom which might fit

  him for his kingly office."

  v. 120. --Parmenides Melissus Bryso.]

  For the singular opinions entertained by the two former of these

  heathen philosophers, see Diogenes Laertius, 1. ix. and Aristot.

  de Caelo, 1. iii. c. 1 and Phys. l. i. c. 2. The last is also

  twice adduced by 2. Aristotle (Anal Post. 1. i. c. 9. and Rhet.

  1. iii. c. 2.) as 3. affording instances of false reasoning.

  v. 123. Sabellius, Arius.] Well-known heretics.

  v. 124. Scymitars.] A passage in the travels of

  Bertradon de la Brocquiere, translated by Mr. Johnes, will

  explain this

  allusion, which has given some trouble to the commentators. That

  traveler, who wrote before Dante, informs us, p. 138, that the

  wandering Arabs used their scymitars as mirrors.

  v. 126. Let not.] "Let not short-sighted mortals presume to

  decide on the future doom of any man, from a consideration of his

  present character and actions."

  CANTO XIV

  v. 5. Such was the image.] The voice of Thomas Aquinas

  proceeding, from the circle to the centre and that of Beatrice

  from the centre to the circle.

  v. 26. Him.] Literally translated by Chaucer, Troilus and

  Cresseide.

  Thou one two, and three eterne on live

  That raignest aie in three, two and one

  Uncircumscript, and all maist circonscrive,
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  v. 81. The goodliest light.] Solomon.

  v. 78. To more lofty bliss.] To the planet Mars.

  v. 94. The venerable sign.] The cross.

  v. 125. He.] "He who considers that the eyes of Beatrice became

  more radiant the higher we ascended, must not wonder that I do

  not except even them as I had not yet beheld them since our

  entrance into this planet."

  CANTO XV

  v. 24. Our greater Muse.] Virgil Aen. 1. vi. 684.

  v. 84. I am thy root.] Cacciaguida, father to Alighieri, of

  whom our Poet was the great-grandson.

  v. 89. The mountain.] Purgatory.

  v. 92. Florence.] See G. Villani, l. iii. c. 2.

  v. 93. Which calls her still.] The public clock being still

  within the circuit of the ancient walls.

  v. 98. When.] When the women were not married at too early an

  age, and did not expect too large a portion.

  v. 101. Void.] Through the civil wars.

  v. 102 Sardanapalus.] The luxurious monarch of Assyria Juvenal

  is here imitated, who uses his name for an instance of

  effeminacy. Sat.

  v. 103. Montemalo ] Either an elevated spot between Rome and

  Viterbo, or Monte Mario, the site of the villa Mellini,

  commanding a view of Rome.

  v. 101. Our suburban turret.] Uccellatojo, near Florence, from

  whence that city was discovered.

  v. 103. Bellincion Berti.] Hell, Canto XVI. 38. nd Notes.

  There is a curious description of the simple manner in which the

  earlier Florentines dressed themselves in G. Villani, 1 vi. c.

  71.

  v. 110. Of Nerli and of Vecchio.] Two of the most opulent

  families in Florence.

  v. 113. Each.] "None fearful either of dying in banishment, or

  of being deserted by her husband on a scheme of battle in France.

  v. 120. A Salterello and Cianghella.] The latter a shameless

  woman of the family of Tosa, married to Lito degli Alidosi of

  Imola: the former Lapo Salterello, a lawyer, with whom Dante was

  at variance.

  v. 125. Mary.] The Virgin was involved in the pains of

  child-birth Purgatory, Canto XX. 21.

  v. 130 Valdipado.] Cacciaguida's wife, whose family name was

  Aldighieri; came from Ferrara, called Val di Pado, from its being

  watered by the Po.

  v. 131. Conrad.] The Emperor Conrad III who died in 1152.

  See G. Villani, 1. iv. 34.

  v. 136. Whose people.] The Mahometans, who were left in

  possession of the Holy Land, through the supineness of the Pope.

  CANTO XVI

  v. 10. With greeting.] The Poet, who had addressed the spirit,

  not knowing him to be his ancestor, with a plain "Thou," now uses

  more ceremony, and calls him "You," according to a custom

  introduced among the Romans in the latter times of the empire.

  v. 15. Guinever.] Beatrice's smile encouraged him to proceed

  just as the cough of Ginevra's female servant gave her mistress

  assurance to admit the freedoms of Lancelot. See Hell, Canto V.

  124.

  v. 23. The fold.] Florence, of which John the Baptist was the

  patron saint.

  v. 31. From the day.] From the Incarnation to the birth of

  Cacciaguida, the planet Mars had returned five hundred and

  fifty-three times to the constellation of Leo, with which it is

  supposed to have a congenial influence. His birth may,

  therefore, be placed about 1106.

  v. 38. The last.] The city was divided into four compartments.

  The Elisei, the ancestors of Dante, resided near the entrance of

  that named from the Porta S. Piero, which was the last reached by

  the competitor in the annual race at Florence. See G. Villani,

  1. iv. c. 10.

  v. 44. From Mars.] "Both in the times of heathenish and of

  Christianity." Hell, Canto XIII. 144.

  v. 48. Campi and Certaldo and Fighine.] Country places near

  Florence.