Therefore with foresight let me arm my breast,
That if I lose the place I cherish most,

The boldness of my verse lose not the rest.
Down in the world of endless misery,

And on the mountain, from whose beauteous coast The eyes of Beatrice exalted me ;

109

[sphere, 115

And as through heaven I've passed from sphere to

That have I learnt, which, were I to disclose,

To many would of bitter taste appear. But if the truth I timidly unfold,

I fear to die in the esteem of those

To whom the present time will soon be old."

The light so dear to me, whence smiles were flowing, 121
Assumed at first a garb of livelier flame,

Like golden mirror in the sunbeam glowing;
Then answer'd me: "The conscience that is dyed
Or with its own, or with another's shame,
May not the sharpness of your words abide;
Nevertheless, each false disguise removed,
Be all the vision fully manifested;

And let him wince who feels himself reproved;

For if thy words be deem'd a harsh repast,
When tasted first, yet still, when well digested,
A wholesome food shall they afford at last.

127

This thy reproof shall like the wind be found,
Which chiefly doth the loftiest heights assail;

And hence a greater glory shall redound.
Wherefore no spirits here to thee are shown,

Or in the mount, or in the dolorous vale,

133

Save those whose names and characters are known.

For he who hears thee, will not be inclined

To give full credence, and to rest secure,

If the example brought before his mind Be based on root ignoble or obscure."

139

NOTES.

Page 161. (Line 1.) Phaeton, in great anxiety, enquired of his mother Clymene if he were indeed the son of Apollo, which had been denied. In a similar state of anxiety was Dantewishing to question his ancestor Cacciaguida “that most holy light," as to his future life—yet afraid to do so; remembering the impending evils alluded to by Farinata, Inf. x. 81 and 127.

Page 162. (Line 13.) Dante addresses Cacciaguida, as Beatrice directs him. (20.) i.e. To Purgatory, See viii. 137. (26.) Thus in the Inferno, xv. 93. Dante declared to Brunetto. "Let Fortune do her worst, prepared am I."

Page 163. (Line 43.) i.e. As from an organ, &c.—so from the face of God is reflected upon my sight your future destiny.

See

(46.)" As Hippolitus left Athens to avoid compliance with tlie love of his step-mother Phædra: so will you depart from Florence to avoid compliance with the desires of your perverse and unnatural countrymen."-Venturi. (49.) "This," Cacciaguida adds, "the Pope and his adherents desire; and the plot is already laid against you by your enemies at Rome, where Christ is daily bought and sold," i.e. where simony is daily practised by the rapacious train of Simon Magus. Inf. xix. 2. "He points to the treaty on foot at Rome with Boniface VIII. to induce Charles Lackland, brother to the king of France, to come to Florence, under pretence of reforming it; but, in truth, to drive out the Bianchi, to which party Dante belonged; as was effected in January, 1302"-Lombardi. note to Inf. vi. 60. (55.) “It is a miserable thing to go from house to house for where thou art a stranger, thou darest not open thy month. Thou shalt entertain and feast, and have no thanks; moreover, thou shalt hear bitter words....These things are grievous to a man of understanding—the upbraiding of house-room, and reproaching of the lender." Ecclesiasticus xxix. 24. Again, xl. 28, 29, "My Son, lead not a beggar's life, for better is it to die than to beg. The life of him that dependeth on another man's table is not to be counted for a life." (57.) The metaphor of the arrow is used by Clarendon : "This was an arrow which the House of Commons did not expect would have been shot out of that quiver." Vol. ii. b. 10, p. 88. (58.) The bitter bread reminds one of Shakspere. Richard II., act 3, sc. 1:—

"Myself

Have stooped my neck under your injuries,

And sighed my English breath in foreign clouds,
Eating the bitter bread of banishment."

Spenser's beautifal lamentation in Mother Hubbard's Tale

may not be omitted :

"Full little knowest thou, that hast not tried,
What Hell it is, in suing long to bide;

To lose good days, that might be better spent ;
To waste long nights, in pensive discontent;
To speed to day, to be put back to-morrow;
To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow;
To have thy Prince's grace, yet want her Peer's,
To have thy asking, yet wait many years;
To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares;
To eat thy heart with comfortless despairs;
To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run,

To spend, to give to want-to be undone.

But Euripides appears to be the source whence so many beautiful lamentations on the subject have been derived. The Greek scholar is referred to that beautiful Chorus of the Medea, beginning, Ερωτες, υπερ μεν ἄγαν ἐλθοντες, and to the second Strophe, & τaтpis, & dŵμá têpov, line 648, a version of which is appended for the benefit of the English reader. "O thou my country and my home,

May exile never be my doom

That wretchedness which knoweth no relief,
That never ending life of hopeless grief!

In death, in death low let me lie,

Ere mine such dire calamity;

For no affliction upon earth is sent

Heavier for man to bear than banishment."

Page 164. (Line 62.) “ Foul and senseless company” completes the misery of the exile. Here Euripides again seems imitated : “ Και τετο λυπρόν, συνασοφειν τοῖς μη σοφοῖς.”Phænissa

397. "With these vile companions of his exile, Dante in vain attempted a forcible entrance into Florence. After this miscarriage, Dante quitted the confederacy—disgusted by the bickerings, jealousies, and bad faith, of the heterogeneous and unmanageable multitude, which common calamities had drawn together, but could not cement by common interests." James Montgomery. Life of Dante. Lardner's Cab. Cycl. No. 63. The "valley" means Italy in its degraded state, the same valley that in the opening of the Inferno, i. 14, " struck the poet with dismay," and is described at length in the fourteenth of the Purgatorio. (71.) Bartolomeo della Scala,-Lord of Verona, whose arms were an eagle upon a ladder. (76.) i.e. Can Grande della Scala-said to have been born under the influence of the planet Mars, in which Dante now was. His virtue, and contempt of riches are predicted in similar terms in the Inferno, i. 101, where see note. See also Par. xxx. 136. (82.) Pope Clement, the Gascon, after making Henry VII. Emperor, secretly assisted his foes. See note Inf. xix. 82; Par. xxvii. 58. Page 165. (Line 95.) Referring to the hints thrown out in the Inf. and Purg. of impending calamities.

Page 166. (Line 110.) i.e." Foreseeing my exile from Florence, the place of my birth, I must take care, lest, indulging a spirit of satire, I exclude myself from other places also." (Line 134.) From Horace. ii. b. Odes. x. 9. "Sæpius ventis agitatur ingens

Page 167.