ment, and turn-the first to Virgil, the second to Conrad Malespina, of whom see notes, lines 109, 135, and exclaim: "Rise from thy seat, and behold this signal instance of God's mercy, in his allowing one yet in the body to visit these regions." (70.) "The swelling main" means the sea interposed between the earth and Purgatory. "When you have returned to earth," he says, "bid my daughter Giovanna offer up prayers for me." (73.) After Nino's death, his widow Beatrice, sister of Azzo VIII. of Este, one of the most powerful tyrants of Italy, and chief of the Guelf party, married Galeozzo Visconti, son of Maffeo, the ambitious ruler of Milan. This marriage, uniting two such powerful families, was considered by Dante the death blow of the Ghibelline party, and he bitterly inveighed against it. Although Nino was a Guelf, Dante speaks of him with affection. See note to Inf. xxxiii. 1, where he is mentioned as acting a treacherous part against his uncle, Count Ugolino. Dante intimates, line 53, his unexpected delight at finding him in Purgatory instead of Hell, "the abode of guilt.”—“ The passage of Dante which alludes to the marriage of Galeozzo with Beatrice, is full of beauty. The affection with which Dante speaks to Nino, whom he is glad to meet in Purgatory, when he was afraid lest he might have been lost-the bitterness of his reproach to Beatrice, whom he detested as belonging to the house of Este, the object of Dante's unrelenting and deep abhorrence—his silence against Visconti, whose conduct he could not approve, and yet not to lower the character of a Ghibelline chief, he would not openly condemn-all these are points which should never escape the reader's attention in perusing those noble lines where Dante, walking with Sordello through Purgatory, is represented as inviting him to descend into the valley, and hold converse with the mighty shadows below." -Panizzi, Landscape Annual, 1832. "To us, this episode is among the most affecting in the whole poem.”—Ugo Foscolo. Discorso, p. 56. (80.) The viper was the crest of Galeozzo, her new husband-the ensign also of the Milanese. (81.) The cock was the ensign of Gallura, where Nino ruled. "She will not," says Nino, "die with such fair fame as if she had preserved her faith and love to me." And it appears she had reason to repent. Page 72. (Line 86.) Towards the antarctic pole, where the apparent motion of the stars is slow. (91.) These are the four bright stars of the first canto-signifying the four cardinal virtues, said to rise in the morning. (93.) The three stars which now succeed towards evening, are the three evangelical virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity. (100.) "By the serpent is intended our Adversary, who comes among herbs and flowers, i.e. among worldly delights and pleasures, to deceive man."— Landino. "Milton," says Biagioli, «has hence borrowed his beautiful description of the serpent," Par. Lost, ix. 434, 524:— "Nearer he drew and many a walk traversed Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm; Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen Among thick woven arborets and flowers Imborder'd on each bank. * Oft he bowed His turret crest and sleek enamell❜d neck, Fawning, and lick'd the ground whereon she trod." (104.) "Dante calls the two angels' astor,' a kind of hawk, because they had wings, and came to chase away the hostile serpent."-Lombardi. "Perhaps there is no description so sublime in the Purgatorio as that of the discovery and expulsion of the serpent."-Ugo Foscolo. Edinburgh Review, vol. 29, art. Dante. Page 73. (Line 109.) The shade is Conrad Malespina, who approached Nino, the Judge of Gallura, when he cried, line 65," Up Conrad." He was Marquis of Lunegiana, and father of Morello Malespina, who received Dante during his exile. See note, line 135. (112.) "Sufficient wax," &c., is thus explained. "May the divine grace find so hearty a co-operation on the part of thy own will as shall enable thee to ascend the terrestrial Paradise, which is on the top of this mountain.”— Cary. Conrad endeavours to elicit some tidings relative to Valdimagra and Lunegiana, of which he had been Marquis. The love he bore to his own family, refers to the liberality he displayed in granting them large possessions. (131.) The vicious lord is Pope Boniface VIII.-" Should any one doubt of this explanation, let him read canto xvi. 100, 105.”—Biagioli, supported by Costa. Page 74. (Line 185.) i.e. The sun shall not enter the sign of the Ram seven times, ere thou shalt be confirmed in thy good opinion of Valdimagra, referring to the hospitality experienced by Dante seven years after among the mountains of Luni, and in the house of Malespina."-See Ugo Foscolo. Dis corso. CANTO IX. ARGUMENT. DANTE sees a vision. In the mean time, he is carried up the mountain by Lucia, and he finds himself at the gate of Purgatory. He intreats the Angel, sitting there, to open it,— and is admitted together with Virgil. FORTH from her lover's arms, array'd in white, And e'en the third already droop'd its wing, 1 7 What time the swallow pours her plaintive strain, 13 Saluting the approach of morning grey, Thus haply mindful of her former pain; And when the spirit roves with highest flight Beyond its earthly tenement of clay; Viewing the future with prophetic sight, Caught in a vision, seem'd I to behold 19 An eagle in the sky with open wing, Whence Ganymede, his friends abandoning, Was snatch'd to Heaven's most high consistory. "Here," I bethought me, "he perhaps is wont To strike his prey-perhaps disdaineth he From other place with burden'd claw to mount." Then, having wheel'd around in many a spire, He swoop'd like lightning, terrible to see, And bore me upward to the sphere of fire. There, as it seem'd, we both were wrapt in flame; And that imagined fire so fiercely burn'd, It broke my sleep, swift darting through my frame. As erst Achilles started in dismay, Around him when his waken'd eyes he turn'd, 25 31 |