Then, peering forth from the unclosed jaw, Rose from his side a shade1, high as the chin, Leaning, methought, upon its knees upraised. It look'd around, as eager to explore If there were other with me; but perceiving Where is my son2? and wherefore not with thee?" 1 A shade.] The spirit of Cavalcante Cavalcanti, a noble Florentine, of the Guelph party. 2 My son.] Guido, the son of Cavalcante Cavalcanti; "he whom I call the first of my friends," says Dante in his Vita Nuova, where the commencement of their friendship is related. From the character given of him by contemporary writers, his temper was well formed to assimilate with that of our poet. "He was," according to G. Villani, lib. viii. c. 41. "of a philosophical and elegant mind, if he had not been too delicate and fastidious." And Dino Compagni terms him a young and noble knight, brave and courteous, but of a lofty scornful spirit, much addicted to solitude and study." Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. t. 9. lib. i. p. 481. He died, either in exile at Serrazana, or soon after his return to Florence, December 1300, during the spring of which year the action of this poem is supposed to be passing. 66 Some Guido Cavalcanti, being more given to philosophy than poetry, was perhaps no great admirer of Virgil. poetical compositions by Guido are, however, still extant; and his reputation for skill in the art was such as to eclipse that of his predecessor and namesake Guido Guinicelli, as we shall see in the Purgatory, Canto xi. in the notes to which the reader will find specimens of the poems that have been left by each of these writers. His "Canzone sopra il Terreno Amore" was thought worthy of being illustrated by numerous and ample commentaries. Crescimbeni, Ist. della Volg. Poes. lib. v. Our Author addressed him in a playful sonnet, of which the following spirited translation is found in the notes to Hayley's Essay on Epic Poetry. Ep. iii. : Henry! I wish that you, and Charles, and I, By some sweet spell within a bark were placed, So that no changes of the shifting sky, Might bar our course, but heighten still our taste Whence I so fully answer'd. He at once Exclaim'd, up starting, "How! said'st thou, he had ? Meanwhile the other, great of soul, near whom "They in this art," he cried, "small skill have shown; Then that my Lucy, Lucy fair and free, With those soft nymphs, on whom your souls are bent, To talk of love throughout the live-long day; The two friends, here called Henry and Charles, are, in the original, Guido and Lapo, concerning the latter of whom see the Life of Dante prefixed: and Lucy is Monna Bice. A more literal version of the sonnet may be found in the "Canzoniere of Dante, translated by Charles Lyell, Esq." Svo. Lond. 1835. p. 407. 1 Said'st thou, he had? In Eschylus, the shade of Darius is represented as inquiring with similar anxiety after the fate of his son Xerxes. Atossa. Μονάδα δὲ Ξέρξην ἔρημόν φασιν οὐ πολλῶν μέτα- Atossa. Xerxes astonish'd, desolate, alone- 2 Not yet fifty times.] "Not fifty months shall be passed, before thou shalt learn, by woeful experience, the difficulty of returning from banishment to thy native city." 3 Queen of this realm.] The moon, one of whose titles in heathen mythology, was Proserpine, queen of the shades below. 4 So to the pleasant world mayst thou return.] E se tu mai nel dolce mondo reggi. Lombardi would construe this: "And if thou ever remain in the pleasant world." His chief reasons for thus departing from the common interpretation, are, first that "se" in the sense of "so" cannot be followed by "mai," any more than in Latin "sic" can be followed by " unquam"; and next, that "reggi" is too unlike "riedi" to be put for it. A more As thou shalt tell me why, in all their laws, "The slaughter1 and great havoc," I replied, "That colour'd Arbia's flood with crimson stainTo these impute, that in our hallow'd dome Such orisons2 ascend." Sighing he shook The head, then thus resumed: "In that affray I stood not singly, nor, without just cause, Assuredly, should with the rest have stirr'd; But singly there I stood3, when, by consent Of all, Florence had to the ground been razed, The one who openly forbade the deed." "So may thy lineage4 find at last repose," intimate acquaintance with the early Florentine writers would have taught him that "mai" is used in other senses than those which "unquam" appears to have had, particularly in that of " pur,' ,""yet"; as may be seen in the notes to the Decameron, p. 43. Ed. Giunti, 1573; and that the old writers both of prose and verse changed "riedo" into "reggio," as of fiedo" they made "feggio." Inf. c. xv. v. 39. and c. xvii. v. 75. See page 98 of the same notes to the Decameron, where a poet before Dante's time is said to have translated "Redeunt flores," Reggiono i fiori." 66 66 1 The slaughter.] By means of Farinata degli Uberti, the Guelfi were conquered by the army of king Manfredi, near the river Arbia, with so great a slaughter, that those who escaped from that defeat took refuge, not in Florence, which city they considered as lost to them, but in Lucca." Macchiavelli. Hist. of Flor. b. ii. and G. Villani, lib. vi. c. lxxx. and lxxxi. 2 Such orisons.] This appears to allude to certain prayers which were offered up in the churches of Florence, for deliverance from the hostile attempts of the Uberti: or, it may be, that the public councils being held in churches, the speeches delivered in them against the Uberti are termed orisons," or prayers. 3 Singly there I stood.] Guido Novello assembled a council of the Ghibellini at Empoli; where it was agreed by all, that, in order to maintain the ascendancy of the Ghibelline party in Tuscany, it was necessary to destroy Florence, which could serve only (the people of that city being Guelfi) to enable the party attached to the church to recover its strength. This cruel sentence, passed upon so noble a city, met with no opposition from any of its citizens or friends, except Farinata degli Uberti, who openly and without reserve forbade the measure; affirming, that he had endured so many hardships, and encountered so many dangers, with no other view than that of being able to pass his days in his own country. Macchiavelli, Hist. of Flor. b. ii. 4 So may thy lineage.] Deh se riposi mai vostra semenza. Here Lombardi is again mistaken, as at v. 80, above. Let me take this occasion to apprise the reader of Italian poetry, that one not well versed in it is very apt to misapprehend I thus adjured him, " as thou solve this knot, Then wholly fails; nor of your human state, Then conscious of my fault2, and by remorse But now my master summoning me back the word " se," as I think Cowper has done in translating Milton's Italian verses. A good instance of the different meanings, in which it is used, is afforded in the following lines by Bernardo Capello: E tu, che dolcemente i fiori e l' erba Le mie lagrime accogli entro al tuo seno. Here the first "se" signifies "so," and the second "if." We view.]" The departed spirits know things past and to come; yet are ignorant of things present. Agamemnon foretells what should happen unto Ulysses, yet ignorantly inquires what is become of his own son." Brown on Urne Burial. Ch. iv. 2 My fault.] Dante felt remorse for not having returned an immediate answer to the inquiry of Cavalcante, from which delay he was led to believe that his son Guido was no longer living. 3 Frederick.] The Emperor Frederick the Second, who died in 1250. See notes to Canto xiii. And the Lord Cardinal1; and of the rest I speak not." He, this said, from sight withdrew. Betokening me such ill. Onward he moved, Forthwith he to the left hand turn'd his feet: We left the wall, and towards the middle space Went by a path that to a valley strikes, Which e'en thus high exhaled its noisome steam. CANTO XI. ARGUMENT. Dante arrives at the verge of a rocky precipice which encloses the seventh circle, where he sees the sepulchre of Anastasius the Heretic; behind the lid of which pausing a little, to make himself capable by degrees of enduring the fetid smell that steamed upward from the abyss, he is instructed by Virgil concerning the manner in which the three following circles are disposed, and what description of sinners is punished in each. He then enquires the reason why the carnal, the gluttonous, the avaricious and prodigal, the wrathful and gloomy, suffer not their punishments within the city of Dis. He next asks how 1 The Lord Cardinal.] Ottaviano Ubaldini, a Florentine, made cardinal in 1245, and deceased about 1273. On account of his great influence, he was generally known by the appellation of "the Cardinal." It is reported of him, that he declared, if there were any such thing as a human soul, he had lost his for the Ghibellini. "I know not," says Tiraboschi, "whether it is on sufficient grounds that Crescimbeni numbers among the Poets of this age the Cardinal Uttaviano, or Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, a Florentine, archdeacon and procurator of the church of Bologna, afterwards made Cardinal by Innocent IV. in 1245, and employed in the most important public affairs, wherein, however, he showed himself, more than became his character, a favourer of the Ghibellines. He died, not in the year 1272, as Ciaconio and other writers have reported, but at soonest after the July of 1273, at which time he was in Mugello with Pope Gregory X." Tiraboschi Della Poes. It. Mr. Mathias's Edit. t. i. p. 140. 2 Her gracious beam.] Beatrice. |