The thunder feeble. Following its course Orlando1 blew not, when that dismal rout To traverse thou hast therefore widely err'd Then tenderly he caught me by the hand; Our vision traces what the mist involves Shoulders, and breast, and of the belly huge 1 Orlando.] When Charlemain with all his peerage fell At Fontarabia. Milton, P. L. b. i. 586. See Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, vol. i. sect. iii. p. 132. "This is the horn which Orlando won from the giant Jatmund, and which, as Turpin and the Islandic bards report, was endued with magical power, and might be heard at the distance of twenty miles." Charlemain and Orlando are introduced in the Paradise, Canto xviii. 2 Montereggion.] A castle near Sienna. 3 Giants.] The giants round the pit, it is remarked by Warton, are in the Arabian vein of fabling. See D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orientale. V. Rocail. p. 717. a. Such slaves to do his bidding; and if she The bank, which girdled him below, such height Downward from whence a man his garment loops. 66 So shouted his fierce lips, which sweeter hymns Then to the leftward turning sped we forth, 1 The pine.] "The large pine of bronze, which once ornamented the top of the mole of Adrian, was afterwards employed to decorate the top of the belfry of St. Peter; and having (according to Buti) been thrown down by lightning, it was, after lying some time on the steps of this palace, transferred to the place where it now is, in the Pope's garden, by the side of the great corridore of Belvedere. In the time of our Poet, the pine was then either on the belfry or on the steps of St. Peter." Lombardi. 2 Raphel, &c.] These unmeaning sounds, it is supposed, are meant to express the confusion of languages at the building of the tower of Babel, 3 Spirit confused.] I had before translated "Wild spirit!" and have altered it at the suggestion of Mr. Darley, who well observes, that "anima confusa" is peculiarly appropriate to Nimrod, the author of the confusion at Babel. The other, with a chain, that fasten'd him Great was his prowess, when the giants brought Experience next." He answer'd: "Thou shalt see More fell he seems." By violent earthquake rock'd I dreaded death; nor than the terror more That held him fast. We, straightway journeying on, Grace call him not unto herself." Thus spake 1 The fortunate vale.] The country near Carthage. See Liv. Hist. 1. xxx. and Lucan, Phars. 1. iv. 590, &c. Dante has kept the latter of these writers in his eye throughout all this passage. And caught my guide. Alcides' whilom felt Lightly he placed us; nor, there leaning, stay'd; This Canto treats of the first, and, in part, of the second of those rounds, into which the ninth and last, or frozen circle, is divided. In the former, called Caïna, Dante finds Camiccione de' Pazzi, who gives him an account of other sinners who are there punished; and in the next, named Antenora, he hears in like manner from Bocca degli Abbati who his fellow-sufferers are. COULD I command rough rhimes and hoarse, to suit To jest with, and demands a tongue not used 1 Alcides.] The combat between Hercules and Antæus is adduced by the Poet in his treatise "De Monarchiâ," lib. ii. as a proof of the judgment of God displayed in the duel, according to the singular superstition of those times. "Certamine vero dupliciter Dei judicium aperitur vel ex collisione virium, sicut fit per duellum pugilum, qui duelliones etiam vocantur; vel ex contentione plurium ad aliquod signum prævalere conantium, sicut fit per pugnam athletarum currentium ad bravium. Primus istorum modorum apud gentiles figuratus fuit in illo duello Herculis et Antæi, cujus Lucanus meminit in quarto Pharsaliæ, et Ovidius in nono de rerum transmutatione." 2 The tower of Carisenda.] The leaning tower at Bologna. A tongue not used 3 To infant babbling.] Nè da lingua, che chiami mamma, o babbo. My song, the tuneful maidens, by whose aid Beyond all others wretched! who abide In such a mansion, as scarce thought finds words Been flocks, or mountain goats. As down we stood Bespake me thus: "Look how thou walkest. Take Not e'en its rim had creak'd. As peeps the frog So, to where modest shame appears3, thus low Blue pinch'd and shrined in ice the spirits stood, Moving their teeth in shrill note like the stork 4. Dante in his treatise "De Vulg. Eloq." speaking of words not admissible in the loftier, or, as he calls it, tragic style of poetry, says " In quorum numero nec puerilia propter suam simplicitatem ut Mamma et Babbo," lib. ii. c. vii. 1 A lake.] The same torment is introduced into the Edda, compiled in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. See the "Song of the Sun," translated by the Rev. James Beresford, London, 1805; and compare Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, v. i. dissert. i. and Gray's Posthumous Works, edited by Mr. Mathias, v. ii. p. 106. Indeed, as an escape from "the penalty of Adam, the season's difference," forms one of the most natural topics of consolation for the loss of life, so does a renewal of that suffering in its fiercest extremes of heat and cold bring before the imagination of men in general (except indeed the terrors of a self-accusing conscience) the liveliest idea of future punishment. Refer to Shakspeare and Milton in the notes to Canto iii. 82; and see Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, 8vo. 1807, v. i. p. 182. 2 Tabernich or Pietrapana.] The one a mountain in Sclavonia, the other in that tract of country called the Garfagnana, not far from Lucca. 3 To where modest shame appears.] "As high as to the face." ↑ Moving their teeth in shrill note like the stork.] Mettendo i denti in nota di cicogna. |