therefore, while we are here among the Graves and Monuments, it may be well said, that we are not far from our own Houses, or how soon we shall be possessors of them, in regard of the frailty attending on us. of the Church was shut: Signior Betto and his company came riding from Saint Reparata, and espying Signior Guido among the Graves and Tombs, said, 'Come, let us go make some jests to anger him.' So putting the Spurs to their Horses they rode apace towards Napier, Florentine History, I. 368, him; and being upon him before hee per-speaks of Guido as a bold, melanceived them, one of them said, Guido, choly man, who loved solitude and thou refusest to be one of our society, literature; but generous, brave, and and seekest for that which never was: courteous, a poet and philosopher, and when thou hast found it, tells us, what one that seems to have had the respect wilt thou do with it?" and admiration of his age." He then adds this singular picture of the times: 6 "Guido seeing himself round engirt with them, suddenly thus replyed: 'Gentlemen, you may use me in your own House as you please.' And setting his hand upon one of the Tombs (which was somewhat great) he took his rising, and leapt quite over it on the further side, as being of an agile and sprightly body, and being thus freed from them, he went away to his own lodging. 66 "Corso Donati, by whom he was feared and hated, would have had him murdered while on a pilgrimage to Saint James of Galicia; on his return this became known and gained him many supporters amongst the Cerchi and other youth of Florence; he took no regular measures of vengeance, but, accidentally meeting Corso in the street, rode violently towards him, casting his javelin at the same time; it missed by the trip. ping of his horse, and he escaped with a slight wound from one of Donati's attendants.' Sacchetti, Nov. 68, tells a pleasant story of Guido's having his cloak naileu to the bench by a roguish boy, while he was playing chess in one of the streets of Florence, which is also a curious picture of Italian life. 75. Farinata pays no attention to this outburst of paternal tenderness on the part of his Guelfic kinsman, but waits, in stern indifference, till it is ended, and then calmly resumes his discourse. "They stood all like men amazed, strangely looking one upon another, and began afterward to murmur among themselves: That Guido was a man without any understanding, and the answer which he had made unto them was to no purpose, neither savoured of any discretion, but meerly came from an empty Brain, because they had no more to do in the place where now they were, than any of the other Citizens, and Signior Guido (himself) as little as any of them; whereunto Signior Betto thus replyed: Alas, Gentlemen, it is you your selves that are void of understanding: for, if you had but observed the answer which he made unto us: he did honestly, and (in very few words) not only notably express his own wisdom, 86. In the great battle of Monte but also deservedly reprehend us. Be- Aperto. The river Arbia is a few miles cause, if we observe things as we ought south of Siena. The traveller crosses it to do, Graves and Tombs are the Houses on his way to Rome. In this battle the of the dead, ordained and prepared to be banished Ghibellines of Florence, jointhe latest dwellings. He told us more- ing the Sienese, gained a victory over over that although we have here (in this the Guelfs, and retook the city of life) our habitations and abidings, yet Florence. Before the battle Buonaguida, these (or the like) must at last be our Syndic of Siena, presented the keys of Houses. To let us know, and all other the city to the Virgin Mary in the Cathe foolish, indiscreet, and unlearned men, dral, and made a gift to her of the city that we are worse than dead men, and the neighbouring country. After in comparison of him, and other men the battle the standard of the vanquished equal to him in skill and learning. And Florentines, together with their battle 80. The moon, called in the heavens Diana, on earth Luna, and in the infernal regions Proserpina. bell, the Martinella, was tied to the tail of a jackass and dragged in the dirt. See Ampère, Voyage Dantesque, 254. 94. After the battle of Monte Aperto a diet of the Ghibellines was held at Empoli, in which the deputies from Siena and Pisa, prompted no doubt by provincial hatred, urged the demolition of Florence. Farinata vehemently opposed the project in a speech, thus given in Napier, Florentine History, I. 257: That you should return in triumph to never will allow what even our enemies "Farinata then rose, and with angry gestures quitted the assembly; but left such an impression on the mind of his audience that the project was instantly dropped, and the only question for the moment was how to regain a chief of such talent and influence." 119. Frederick II., son of the Emperor Henry VI., surnamed the Severe, and grandson of Barbarossa. He reigned from 1220 to 1250, not only as Em "It would have been better,' he exclaimed, to have died on the Arbia, than survive only to hear such a proposition as that which they were then discussing. There is no happiness in victory itself, that must ever be sought for amongst the companions who helped us to gain the day, and the injury we receive from an enemy inflicts a far more trifling wound than the wrong that comes from the hand of a friend. If I now complain, it is not that I fear the destruction of my native city, for as long as I have life to wield a sword Florence shall never be destroyed: but I cannot suppress my indignation at the discourses I have just been listening to: we are here assembled to discuss the wisest means of maintaining our influence in Florence, not to debate on its destruction, and my country would in-peror of Germany, but also as King of deed be unfortunate, and I and my companions miserable, mean-spirited creatures, if it were true that the fate of our city depended on the fiat of the present assembly. I did hope that all former hatred would have been banished from such a meeting, and that our mutual destruction would not have been treacherously aimed at from under the false colours of general safety; I did hope that all here were convinced that counsel dictated by jealousy could never be advantageous to the general good! But to what does your hatred attach itself? To the ground on which the city stands? To its houses and insensible walls? To the fugitives who have abandoned it? Or to ourselves that now possess it? Who is he that thus advises? Who is the bold bad man that dare thus give voice to the malice he hath engendered in his soul? Is it meet then that all your cities should exist unharmed, and ours alone be devoted to destruction? Naples and Sicily, where for the most part he held his court, one of the most brilliant of the Middle Ages. Villani, Cronica, V. 1, thus sketches his character: "This Frederick reigned thirty years as Emperor, and was a man of great mark and great worth, learned in letters and of natural ability, universal in all things; he knew the Latin language, the Italian, the German, French, Greek, and Arabic; was copiously endowed with all virtues, liberal and courteous in giving, valiant and skilled in arms, and was much feared. And he was dissolute and voluptuous in many ways, and had many concubines and mamelukes, after the Saracenic fashion; he was addicted to all sensual delights, and led an Epicurean life, taking no account of any other; and this was one principal reason why he was an enemy to the clergy and the Holy Church." Milman, Lat. Christ., B. X., Chap. iii., says of him: "Frederick's pre men.... dilection for his native kingdom, for departure for Palestine. In the harbours the bright cities reflected in the blue of Sicily and Apulia he prepared a fleet Mediterranean, over the dark barbaric of one hundred galleys, and of one towns of Germany, of itself characte- hundred vessels, that were framed to rizes the man. The summer skies, the transport and land two thousand five more polished manners, the more ele- hundred knights, with horses and atgant luxuries, the knowledge, the arts, tendants; his vassals of Naples and Gerthe poetry, the gayety, the beauty, the many formed a powerful army; and romance of the South, were throughout the number of English crusaders was his life more congenial to his mind, than magnified to sixty thousand by the rethe heavier and more chilly climate, port of fame. But the inevitable, or the feudal barbarism, the ruder pomp, affected, slowness of these mighty prethe coarser habits of his German liege-parations consumed the strength and And no doubt that deli- provisions of the more indigent pilcious climate and lovely land, so highly grims; the multitude was thinned by appreciated by the gay sovereign, was sickness and desertion, and the sultry not without influence on the state, and summer of Calabria anticipated the even the manners of his court, to which mischiefs of a Syrian campaign. At other circumstances contributed to give length the Emperor hoisted sail at a peculiar and romantic character. It Brundusium with a fleet and army of resembled probably (though its full forty thousand men; but he kept the splendour was of a later period) Grenada sea no more than three days; and his in its glory, more than any other in hasty retreat, which was ascribed by Europe, though more rich and pictu- his friends to a grievous indisposition, resque from the variety of races, of was accused by his enemies as a volunmanners, usages, even dresses, which tary and obstinate disobedience. For prevailed within it.” suspending his vow was Frederick ex communicated by Gregory the Ninth; for presuming, the next year, to accomplish his vow, he was again excommunicated by the same Pope. While he served under the banner of the cross, a crusade was preached against him in Italy; and after his return he was compelled to ask pardon for the injuries which he had suffered. The clergy and military orders of Palestine were previously instructed to renounce his communion and dispute his commands; and in his own kingdom the Emperor was forced to consent that the orders of the camp should be issued in the name of God and of the Christian republic. Frederick entered Jerusalem in triumph; and with his own hands (for no priest would perform the office) he took the crown from the altar of the holy sepulchre." Gibbon also, Decline and Fall, Chap. lix., gives this graphic picture : "Frederick the Second, the grandson of Barbarossa, was successively the putil, the enemy, and the victim of the Church. At the age of twenty-one years, and in obedience to his guardian Innocent the Third, he assumed the cross; the same promise was repeated at his royal and imperial coronations; and his marriage with the heiress of Jerusalem forever bound him to defend the kingdom of his son Conrad. But as Frederick advanced in age and authority, he repented of the rash engagements of his youth his liberal sense and knowledge taught him to despise the phantoms of superstition and the crowns of Asia: he no longer entertained the same reverence for the successors of Innocent; and his ambition was occupied by the restoration of the Italian monarchy, from Sicily to the Alps. But the success of this project would have reduced the Popes to thei: primitive simplicity; and, after the delays and excuses of twelve years, they urged the Emperor, with entreaties and threats, to fix the time and place of his Matthew Paris, A.D. 1239, gives a long letter of Pope Gregory IX. in which he calls the Emperor some very hard names; "a beast, full of the words of blasphemy," a wolf in sheep's clothing," ," "a son of lies," "a staff of the impious," and "hammer of the earth"; and finally accuses him of 66 66 When Anastasius II. became Pope in 496, "he dared," says Milman, Hist. Lat. Christ., I. 349, "to doubt the damnation of a bishop excommunicated by the See of Rome : Felix and Acacius are now both before a higher tribunal; leave them to that unerring judgment.' He would have the name of Acacius passed over in silence, quietly dropped, rather than publicly expunged from the diptychs. This degenerate successor of St. Peter is not admitted to the rank of a saint. The Pontifical book (its authority on this point is indignantly repudiated) accuses Anastasius of having communicated with a deacon of Thessalonica, who had kept up communion with Acacius; and of having entertained secret designs of restoring the name of Acacius in the services of the Church." being the author of a work De Tribus stantinople, mutually excommunicated Impostoribus, which, if it ever existed, each other. is no longer to be found. "There is one thing," he says in conclusion, at which, although we ought to mourn for a lost man, you ought to rejoice greatly, and for which you ought to return thanks to God, namely, that this man, who delights in being called a forerunner of Antichrist, by God's will, no longer endures to be veiled in darkness; not expecting that his trial and disgrace are near, he with his own hands undermines the wall of his abominations, and, by the said letters of his, brings his works of darkness to the light, boldly setting forth in them, that he could not be excommunicated by us, although the Vicar of Christ; thus affirming that the Church had not the power of binding and loosing, which was given by our Lord to St. Peter and his successors. But as it may not be easily believed by some people that he has ensnared himself by the words of his own mouth, proofs are ready, to the triumph of the faith; for this king of pestilence openly asserts that the whole world was deceived by three, namely Christ Jesus, Moses, and Mahomet; that, two of them having died in glory, the said Jesus was suspended on the cross; and he, moreover, presumes plainly to affirm (or rather to lie), that all are foolish who believe that God, who created nature, and could do all things, was born of the Virgin." 120. This is Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, who is accused of saying, "If there be any soul, I have lost mine for the Ghibellines." Dante takes him at his word. CANTO XI. 8. Some critics and commentators accuse Dante of confounding Pope Anastasius with the Emperor of that name. Is is however highly probable that Dante knew best whom he meant. Both were accused of heresy, though the heresy of the Pope seems to have been of a mild type. A few years previous to his time, namely, in the year 484, Pope Felix III. and Acacius, Bishop of Con 9. Photinus is the deacon of Thessalonica alluded to in the preceding note. His heresy was, that the Holy Ghost did not proceed from the Father, and that the Father was greater than the Son. The writers who endeavour to rescue the Pope at the expense of the Emperor say that Photinus died before the days of Pope Anastasius. 50. Cahors is the cathedral town of the Department of the Lot, in the South of France, and the birthplace of the poet Clément Marot and of the romance-writer, Calprenède. In the Middle Ages it seems to have been a nest of usurers. Matthew Paris, in his Historie Major, under date of 1235, has a chapter entitled, Of the Usury of the Caursines, which in the translation of Rev. J. A. Giles runs as follows: "In these days prevailed the horrible nuisance of the Caursines to such a degree that there was hardly any one in all England, especially among the bishops, who was not caught in their net. Even the king himself was held indebted to them in an incalculable sum of money. For they circumvented the needy in their necessities, cloaking their usury under the show of trade, and pre tending not to know that whatever is added to the principal is usury, under whatever name it may be called. For it is manifest that their loans lie not in the path of charity, inasmuch as they do not hold out a helping hand to the poor to relieve them, but to deceive them; not to aid others in their starvation, but to gratify their own covetousness; seeing that the motive stamps our every deed. 70. Those within the fat lagoon, the Irascible, Canto VII., VIII. 71. Whom the wind drives, the Wanton, Canto V., and whom the rain doth beat, the Gluttonous, Canto VI. 72. And who encounter with such bitter tongues, the Prodigal and Avaricious, Canto VII. 80. The Ethics of Aristotle, VII. i. "After these things, making another beginning, it must be observed by us that there are three species of things which are to be avoided in manners, viz., Malice, Incontinence, and Bestiality." II. 101. The Physics of Aristotle, Book 107. Genesis, i. 28: "And God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it." 109. Gabrielle Rossetti, in the Comento Analitico of his edition of the Divina Commedia, quotes here the lines of Florian : "Nous ne recevons l'existence 242, has the following remarks upon Dante's idea of rocks and mountains: "At the top of the abyss of the seventh circle, appointed for the 'violent,' or souls who had done evil by force, we are told, first, that the edge of it was composed of great broken stones in a circle;' then, that the place was ‘Alpine'; and, becoming hereupon attentive, in order to hear what an Alpine place is like, we find that it was like the place beyond Trent, where the rock, either by earthquake, or failure of sup port, has broken down to the plain, so that it gives any one at the top some means of getting down to the bottom.' This is not a very elevated or enthusiastic description of an Alpine scene; and it is far from mended by the following verses, in which we are told that Dante began to go down by this great unoften under his feet by reason of the new loading of stones,' and that they moved weight. The fact is that Dante, by many expressions throughout the poem, shows himself to have been a notably bad climber; and being fond of sitting in the sun, looking at his fair Baptistery, or walking in a dignified manner on flat pavement in a long robe, it puts him seriously out of his way when he has to take to his hands and knees, or look to his feet; so that the first strong impres Qu'afin de travailler pour nous, ou pour sion made upon him by any Alpine autrui : De ce devoir sacré quiconque se dispense Par le besoin, ou par l'ennui." 110. The constellation Pisces precedes Aries, in which the sun now is. This indicates the time to be a little before sunrise. It is Saturday morning. 114. The Wain is the constellation Charles's Wain, or Boötes; and Caurus is the Northwest, indicated by the Latin name of the northwest wind. CANTO XII. 1. With this Canto begins the Seventh Circle of the Inferno, in which the Violent are punished. In the first Girone or round are the Violent against their neighbours, plunged more or less deeply in the river of boiling blood. 2. Mr. Ruskin, Modern Painters, III scene whatever is, clearly, that it is bad walking. When he is in a fright and hurry, and has a very steep place to go down, Virgil has to carry him altogether." 5. Speaking of the region to which Dante here alludes, Eustace, Classical Tour, I. 71, says :- "The descent becomes more rapid between Roveredo and Ala; the river, which glided gently through the valley of Trent, assumes the roughness of a torrent; the defiles become narrower; and the mountains break into rocks and precipices, which occasionally approach the road, sometimes rise perpendicular from it, and now and then hang over it in terrible majesty. In a note he adds : : "Amid these wilds the traveller cannot fail to notice a vast tract called the Slavini di Marco, covered with frag L |