Page 43. (Line 88.) Buonconte was son of Guido, Count Montefeltro. See Inf. xxvii. 67, and note. Buonconte, fighting against the Guelfs was killed, and his body never found. Hence the poet feigns the description that follows. Giovanna, his wife, he says, cares not to offer up prayers for him, to expedite his entrance into Purgatory, and he therefore implores the assistance of Dante. (92.) Campaldino is a plain in the Casentine of Poppi, where the battle took place. (95.) The Archiano-a river which runs into the Arno. (104.) A similar dispute was held in the Inferno, xxvii. 112, between St. Francis and the Devil, as to their right over the soul of Guido, the father of this Buonconte.-" Guido is carried off by the Devil on the ground that the Pope had not, and could not have, the power of absolving him ;-a power which many contend the Pope has. Buonconte is carried to Paradise by the Angel, although he was excommunicated by the Pope."-Panizzi. Romantic Poetry of the Italians. (107.) "O! is it not thus, thou man of sin, The precious tears of repentance fall? One heavenly drop hath dispelled them all." Moore. Lalla Rookh. Paradise and the Peri. Page 44. (Line 112.) A similar passage occurs in the Inferno. xxxi. 55. (126.) i.e. The cross which he had made, when dying, by folding his arms across his breast. Page 45. (Line 133.) "Nello della Pietra had espoused a lady of noble family at Siena, named Madonna Pia. Her beauty was the admiration of Tuscany,and excited in the heart of her husband a jealousy, which, exasperated by false reports and groundless suspicions, at length drove him to the desperate resolution of Othello. It is difficult to decide whe ther the lady was quite innocent, but so Dante represents her. Her husband brought her into the Maremma, which then, as now, was a district destructive to health. He never told his unfortunate wife the reason of her banishment to so dangerous a country, and she did not deign to utter complaint or accusation. He lived with her alone, in cold silence, without answering her questions or listening to her remonstrances. He patiently waited till the pestilential air should destroy her health. In a few months she died. Some chroniclers, indeed, tell us that Nello used the dagger to hasten her death. It is certain that he survived her, plunged in sadness and perpetual silence. Dante had in this incident all the materials of ample and very poetical narrative; but he bestows on it only four Yet these few words draw tears from those who know verses. the fate of this young woman. Her first desire to be called to the remembrance of her friends on earth is very affecting. Her modest request, her manner of naming herself, and of describ ing the author of her sufferings without any allusion to his crime, and merely by the pledges of faith and love which attended their first union, are deeply pathetic. The soft harmony of the last verses, full of gay and tender remembrances, forms a most striking contrast with the idea of domestic unhappiness, of death, and of cruelty, which must rise in the reader's imagination."-Ugo Foscolo. Edinb. Review, No. 58, Art. Dante. This story of his being "plunged in sadness and perpetual silence," seems doubtful. It is said that he afterwards married the Countess Margerita; and it appears probable that he calumniated and put to death the unhappy Pia, in order to obtain the hand of the rich and beautiful Countess. CANTO VI. ARGUMENT. DANTE is solicited by numerous shades to obtain for them the prayers of their friends when he returns to this world. Sordello the Mantuan is sitting alone, proud and disdainful. On finding that Virgil is his countryman, he springs to embrace him. Dante breaks forth into an apostrophe against the unnatural quarrels of the Italians. WHEN players from the game of dice depart, He who hath lost remains of sorrowing mind, He stays not; but to some an ear he lends, 1 7 To some gives money:-these straight yield their place; And from the crowd he thus himself defends. Such was my state amid that numerous crew, As oft on either side I turn'd my face; While they with these fair promises withdrew. He of Arezzo, who the mortal blow Received from Ghino's arm, there met my view; He also, who, while following his foe, Was whelm'd in Arno :-there Novello pray'd And not through crime committed, as was said; Pier de la Brosse I mean; and let beware The dame of Brabant now while life is lent, Lest to a flock more sinful she repair. When I from all these spirits had been freed, Who pray'd they might obtain the prayers of man, Their progress to a blessed state to speed ;— "O thou my light! thy text, it seems, hath given Denial to the doctrine," I began, "That prayers can alter the decrees of Heaven: Yet such the faith these spirits entertain. Will all their hopes then prove of no avail? Or is thy writing not to me made plain?" “Plain is my writing," straightway he rejoin'd, "Nor will their cherish'd expectations fail, If thou consider with a thoughtful mind: E 13 19 25 31 For Judgment stoops not from His lofty seat, 37 Though Love's warm flame, in one short moment, may That ransom work these should themselves complete. Moreover, where I wrote that maxim-there No crime by praying could be wash'd away, Since from the Almighty was disjoin'd their prayer. But on my answer do not thou rely, Until confirmed by Her who is the light That shines between the truth and mental eye. For not as erst, am I fatigued; and lo! Ere to the summit we have won our way, Shall re-appear that glorious orb of light, But see a spirit sitting there alone, And lonely, who to us directs his sight; The shortest passage will by him be shown." 43 49 55 |