But who is that Gherard, who, old and sage,
Is left, a sample of the race gone by,
And a reproach to this corrupted age?"
"To dupe or try me is thy speech preferr'd,

Since, Tuscan though it be," he made reply, "Of good Gherard thou seem'st not to have heard. Him by no other surname do I know,

Unless his daughter Gaia lendeth one :

God speed you, for no more with you I go. Piercing the mist-behold the morning ray

Already whitens:-I must hence, before The Angel, who is yonder, comes this way." He then departed, nor would hear me more.

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139

Page 145. (Line 1.)

NOTES.

"Buia d'inferno è di notte, privata

D'ogni pieneta sotto pover cielo."

"Deep, thick, black night, that scarce possess'd a star

To make its horrors visible." Ragg. The Deity, p. 5. In this magnificent description, Dante reminds us of the power of the Inferno. The excessive darkness purports to be a fume proceeding from wrathful souls; but when considered as the opening of a canto, whose object is to show that the wickedness of the world proceeds from the instrumentality of the

Papal power, it is probable that Dante intended to describe the darkness of ignorance, in which it has always been the policy of Rome to involve her benighted subjects.

Page 146. (Line 19.) "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”—St. John i, 29. The prayers which the poet puts into the mouth of the souls in Purgatory are always expressive af sentiments opposite to their former vices: hence the wrathful record the humility of our Saviour.

Page 147. (Line 46.) Marco Lombardo was a Venetian of great influence, worth, and liberality. (55.) Guido del Duca had spoken in the fourteenth canto of the degeneracy of his countrymen. The suspicions created in Dante's mind, when speculating on the cause of this degeneracy, are doubled by Marco's opinion.

Page 148. (Line 63.) "Heaven means starry influence. (67.) Marco says, "One attributes the wickedness of Italy to the influence of the stars-another to the perversity of man. Supposing, however, the stars to possess a certain influence, it is not necessarily predominant, but may be overcome by man, if he exercises that free-will with which he is endowed." See canto xviii. 72. That Dante did not believe in the influence of the stars, is evident from canto xx. 13; though he here speaks according to popular belief. See 2 Esdras, vii. 57.

149. (Line 85.) This Platonic idea of the Creator having the model of all things in his mind, ere they were fashioned, is adopted by Cowper in his Task, and Akenside in his Pleasures of Imagination.

"Not so the mind that hath been touch'd from Heaven,
And in the school of sacred wisdom taught

To read his wonders,-in whose thought, the world,
Fair as it is, existed ere it was."

"From the first

Of days, on them his love divine he fix'd,
His admiration: till, in time complete,

What he admired and loved, his vital smile

Unfolded into being."

(95.) The "true city" seems to point to the prophetical Zion of the scriptures, whose future site Dante supposes will be on the summit of the mountain. See canto xxii. 100, and note. (100.) "The tribe," "la gente," generally interpreted to mean the common people, evidently refers to the clergy. See canto vi. 91, and note. "He compares the Pope, on account of the union of the temporal with the spiritual power in his person, to an unclean beast in the Levitical law."-Cary. "The poet here proceeds to reprobate the attachment to temporal goods, displayed by the clergy in his time; and from their bad example deduces the cause of the general infection of the whole flock. The chewing of the cud, or act of rumination being generally interpreted to refer to wisdom, and the cloven hoof to the practice of it, he appears to attach to the cloven hoof the sense of liberality, in opposition to avarice, or the 'pugno chiuso' of the Inferno, vii. 57. Thus, instead of saying that the prelates of his time, however they might preach up liberality and contempt for worldly goods, did not encourage it by their own example, he says, that they chewed the cud, but had not the hoof divided."-Lombardi. "It is well known that in the dark ages the clergy defended all the enormities mentioned by the Apostle, encouraged the people by their false doctrine to commit them, and went before them in the practice of these enormities."-Macknight, 2 Timothy, i. (106.) "Rome,” says Dante," was wont to have two suns-viz. the Emperor, and the Bishop of Rome, each possessing their several powers-the spiritual and the temporal. The union of the two, through the

aggrandisement of the Papacy, is the cause of the degeneracy of Italy."

Page 150. (Line 124.) The former was a gentleman of Brescia-the latter of Trevigi, surnamed "The good." "Let us suppose that Gherardo da Camino had been the grandson of the meanest hind that ever drank of the Sile, or the Cagnano, and that his grandfather was not yet forgotten, who will dare to say that Gherardo was a mean man; and who will not agree with me in calling him noble ?"-Dante. Convito. Guido da Castello was a virtuous and hospitable citizen of Reggio; of such simplicity that he obtained the name of " the plain Lombard,”—according to the French custom of calling all Italians Lombards. (129.) "It was evident, that unless some great effort were made, the church, if not religion itself, must soon sink under the burden which its secular accompaniments obliged it to bear."—Stebbing's Hist. of the Church; Lardner's Cab. Cycl., vol. ii. p. 200. (132.) "Now," says Dante, “I understand why the tribe of Levi was excluded from all share in the distribution of the land of Canaan; viz.—that not interfering with worldly concerns they might better attend to the duties of their sacerdotal office :-so likewise, if the Church of Rome had confined herself to her proper limits, the affairs of religion would have been better attended to.

Page 151. (136.) i.e. “I cannot doubt but you have heard of the good Gherard, though you pretend not. In naming him, line 125, Marco had not mentioned his residence, as he had Currado's and thus an opportunity was afforded to make inquiry and dilate upon his merits."-Lombardi. (140.) The only other title he condescends to give, is, that of " the father of Gaia," a lady whose virtue and beauty were known throughout Italy.

CANTO XVII.

ARGUMENT.

DANTE emerges from the dense mist of Anger described in the last canto. Address to Fancy. Examples of Anger. Philomela. Haman. Amata. An Angel invites the Poets upward to the fourth circle, where lukewarmness in love towards the Supreme Being is punished,

REMEMBER, reader, if thou ere hast been

Caught in a mist upon an Alpine height,

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Through which, but as a mole does through his skin, Thineeye could pierce-how, when the thick moist shroud Begins to melt away, the solar light

Feebly and faintly penetrates the cloud; And swift will thy imagination be

To form a just conception, how the sun, Which now was setting, first appear'd to me. Thus, keeping even with my faithful guide, Forth from such murky cloud my way I won To the low shores whereon the rays had died.

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