This said, he vanish'd :-I uprose in haste,

Uttering no word, and drew unto my guide,
While on his face my anxious eyes were cast.
He then began: "My son, thy steps by mine
Directing, turn thee back; for from this side
To its low boundaries doth the plain decline.”
Now 'gan the vanquish'd matin hour to flee;
And seen from far, as onward came the day,
I recognised the trembling of the sea.
We journey'd o'er the solitary plain,
Like one retracing his bewilder'd way,

Who till he finds it, seems to strive in vain.
Reaching a spot where yet in conflict vie

The sun and dew, and where a partial shade Prevents the surface from becoming dry,― Both hands upon the verdant herbage there My master now with gentle action laid; And I, of his benign intent aware,

109

115

121

Advanced my cheeks, with humble tears bedew'd; 127
When to my face, by hell's dark shades impair'd,
Its former colour wholly he renew'd.

Then came we to the solitary shore,

That never witness'd his return, who dared

With venturous bark its fatal waves explore.

He, as directed, straightway girt me round :
Each lowly plant (O wonderful to view!)

Soon as my master pluck'd it from the ground,
Spontaneous in the self-same spot up-grew.

133

NOTES,

Page 1. (Line 1.) Dante, having left behind him the "cruel sea" of the Inferno, prepares to sail over the milder waters of the Purgatorio. The metaphor is continued in the Paradiso, canto ii. 1. Spenser makes use of the same.-Fairy Queen, book i, c. 12, st. 1.

"Then eke my feeble bark awhile may stay,

Till merry wind and weather call her hence away."

(9.) Dante, invoking the Muse, calls upon her to inspire fresh life into his poetry, which had been employed in singing of Hell, "the kingdom of the dead." Calliope was invoked by Virgil. Æn. ix. 525.—

"Vos O Calliope, precor aspirate canenti!

Et meministis enim, Divæ, et memorare potestis." "The style of the poet immediately assumes a splendour and a serenity adapted to his subject. His metaphors are all taken from smiling objects."-Ginguené Hist. Lit. d'Italie, c. ix."Hence that calm delight with which the soul will be soothed from the first to the last of this canticle."-Ugo Foscolo, Discorso. (11.) The Picæ, daughters of Pierius, having challenged

the Muses to sing, were defeated, and changed into magpies for their presumption.- Ovid. Met. v.

Page 2. (Line 13.) Dante describes his entrance into the confines of Purgatory, before daybreak, when the sky began to be streaked with light. The purity of the atmosphere is contrasted with the deadly air of the Inferno, which had caused him such severe mental as well as bodily affliction. (15.) "Primo giro," is translated "highest circle," on the authority of Lombardi, supported by the Paduan Editors. (19.) Dryden thus describes Venus in his Palamon and Arcite:

"You serenely move

In your fifth orb, and rule the realm of love." (23.) These stars, being in the antarctic pole, could not be seen except in the southern hemisphere. But Purgatory being antipodal to Jerusalem, according to our poet's supposition, and the terrestrial Paradise situated on the summit of the mountain, these stars would be visible to our first parents, before the fall-for, as they are symbolical of the four cardinal virtues, (Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude), they could only be seen by man in a state of innocency. Hence the lamentation of the poet over the widowed inhabitants of the northern pole or hemisphere, line 26,—“ addressed," says the writer of the Ottino Commento, " to the wicked who are in the Inferno." That four very beautiful stars, however, are actually visible in the southern heavens is well ascertained. See Paduan edition. The famous Amerigo Vespucci was the first to speculate upon the extraordinary mention of them by Dante at a time when so little was known of another hemisphere. A doubt may well exist whether Dante received some information of these stars through Marco Polo, who returned from his voyage in 1295, a few years before the Divina Commedia was

66

written; or whether, as Lorenzo Giacomini suggests, "by mere force of enthusiasm he hit upon a truth so remote from the knowledge of his time." (31.) Cato of Utica ;-selected for his office by the poet in imitation of Virgil. Æn. viii. 670, "Secretosque piós, his dantem jura Catonem." That Dante entertained the highest opinion of him is evident from passages in his Convito. "E quale uomo terreno piu degno fu di seguitare Iddio che Catone? Certo nullo." Again: "O santissimo petto di Catone, chi presumera di te parlare?" Learning from Dante himself that his Inferno is a description of this our erroneous life, and arguing the same of his Purgatorio, I believe that Cato is a symbol of that true liberty which is acquired by subduing our passions and cleansing ourselves from all vice." -Biagioli. 'Religious liberty, according to its more genuine acceptation, is the liberty which commands internal peace, into whatever state of anxiety or distress man may be thrown, and emancipates him from the most tyrannical bondage under which he can groan-his own undisciplined, unimproved, unsanctified nature."-Quarterly Review, No. 105, p. 201.—Cato, as Lombardi observes, is here placed, not as guardian of Purgatory, but of its outskirts. See canto vii. 38. Dante, therefore, is not obnoxious to the blame imputed to him, of making Cato the guide of spirits to Paradise, which he himself was incapable of reaching. The bright vest assigned to him at the day of judgment, line 75, is not therefore to be considered other than a robe with which those in Limbo will be endued at that time. (33.) Shakspeare almost seems to have copied this, Hamlet, act i. sc. 2.

"And with no less nobility of love

Than that which dearest father bears a son,
Do I impart towards you."

Page 3. (Line 40.) i.e. The dark winding rivulet against which the poets made their way up from Hell," the eternal prison," See Inf. xxxiv. 130. "How have ye," he says, ❝ who were once the servants of sin, been able to escape from your prison-house ?" (43.) "Thy word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths."-Psalm cxix. By "profoundest night," is meant the inveterate habit of sin. By the valley, the "vale of woe."-Inf. iv. 7. (53.) Beatrice. (58.) That this expression is intended to designate the death of the soul, and not of the body, is evident from what follows.

Page 4. (Line 76.) Virgil having answered two of Cato's questions, now answers the third, line 46. "My companion," says he," is still alive; and I, though a spirit, am not subject to Minos, the judge of Hell.”—Inf. v. 4, i.e. am not condemned to Hell, but resident in Limbo. (79.)

"Da fædera prisci

Illibata tori; da tantum nomen inane

Connubii: liceat tumulo scripsisse, Catonis

Martia."-Lucan. Phars. ii. 344.

This appeal to Marcia, his wife, was intended to flatter Cato. See his answer, line 92. Another compliment seems intended in the following lines, where Cato is said to be intrusted with the care of the kingdoms or circles of Purgatory, his government being in reality confined to the outskirts of Purgatory, which itself is guarded by an Angel. See canto ix. 103.

Page 5. (Line 88.) "The evil tide" is the river Acheron, in Hell. "The other side" means Limbo.-Inf. iv. 44. "The law ordained" is the change of affection ordained to accompany change of place. Cato is supposed to be among those spirits who were delivered from Limbo by our Saviour. See note, Inf. iv. 53. (96.) The stain to be removed from Dante's