Stories from the Italian Poets: with Lives of the Writers, Volume 1

ume

gion, with one or two exceptions of redeemed Pagans, is occupied by Excommunicated Penitents and by Delayers of Penitence, all of whom are compelled to lose time before their atonement commences. The other and greater portion of the asce

Y THROUGH

colour seemed to pervade the whole serene hollow from earth to heaven. The beautiful planet which encourages loving thoughts made all the orient laugh, obscuring by its very radiance the stars in its train; and among those which were still lingering and sparkling in t

n, who struck his beholder with a veneration like that of a son for his father. He had grey hairs, and a long beard which parted in two do

ouse? Can the laws of the abyss be violated? Or has Heaven changed its mind,

o of Utica, the warder o

otection; and then he prayed leave of passage of him by the love he bore to the chaste eyes o

but as the pilgrim, his companion, was under heavenly protection, he would of course do what he desired.[2] He then desired him to gird his companion with one of the simplest and completest rushes he would see by t

he sea in the distance.[4] Virgil then dipped his hands into a spot of dewy grass, where the sun had least affected it, and with the moisture bathed the face of Dante, who held it out to

ftness. Dante had but turned for an instant to ask his guide what it was, when, on looking again, it had grown far brighter. Two splendid phenomena, he knew not what, then developed themselves from it on either side; and, by degrees, another below it. The two splendours quickly turned out to be wings; and Virgil, who had hitherto wa

, so light that it drew not a drop of water. The celestial pilot stood at the helm, with bliss written in his face; and a hundred spirits were seen within the boat, who, lifting up their voices, sang the psalm b

e darting out of the press to embrace him, in a manner so affectionate as to move the poet to return his warmth; but his arms again and again found themselves crossed on his own bosom, having encircled nothing. The shadow, smiling at the astonishment in the other's face, drew back; and Dante hastened as much forward to shew his zeal in the greeting, when the spirit in a sweet voice recommended him t

k unto my soul Of all the w

spirits listened with such attention, that they seemed to have forgotten the very purpose of their coming; when suddenly th

ng wound in his forehead, stepped forth, and asked Dante if he remembered him. The poet humbly answering in the negative, the stranger disclosed a second wound, that was in his bosom; and then, with a smile, announced himself as Manfredi, king of Naples, who was slain in battle against Charles of Anjou, and died excommunicated. Manfredi gave Dante a message to his da

ing to Dante how it was that in this antipodal region his eastward face beheld the sun in the north instead of the south, was encouraging him to proceed manfully in the hope of finding the path easier by degrees, and of reposing at the end of it, when they heard a voice observing, that they would most likely f

est thou of a croucher like this, for manful journeying? Ve

ese words, looked hard at Dante, and sa

a, a pleasant acquaintance of

id Belacqua, "that was given

another world, that it was of no use to make haste, since the angel had prohibited his going higher up the mountain. He and his companions had to walk ro

e of them, Buonconte da Montefeltro, who died in battle, and whose body could not be found, described how the devil, having been hindered from seizing

alt have rested from thy long journey, remember me,-Pia. Sienna gave me life; the

resuming their way, Dante quoted to Virgil a passage in the ?neid, decrying the utility of prayer, and begged him to explain how it was to be reconciled with what they had just heard. Virgil advised him to wait for the explanation till he saw Beatrice,

a lion on the watch. Virgil, however, went up to him, and gently urged it; but the only reply was a question as to who they were and of what country. The Latin poet beginning to answer him, had scarcely

thing! here was a man who could not hear the sweet sound of a fellow-citizen's voice without feeling his heart

r tone, now exclaim

self, and Sordello f

the dawning of the next day in a recess that overlooked a flowery hollow. The hollow was a lovely spot of ground, enamelled with flowers that surpassed the exquisitest dyes, and green with a grass brighter than emeralds newly broken.[12] There rose from it also a fragrance of

the empire; and another, Ottocar, king of Bohemia, his enemy, who now comforted him; and another, with a small nose,[14] Philip the Third of France, who died a fugitive, shedding the leaves of the lily; he sat beating his breas

with his masculine nose (these two were singing together); and Henry the Third of England, the king of the sim

new to his journey, is thrilled with the like tenderness, when he hears the vesper-bell in the distance, which seems to mourn for the expiring day.[16] At this hour of the coming darkness, Dante beheld one of

the closing

ds them with flaming swords in their hands, broken short of the point. Their wings were as green as the leaves in spring; and they wore garments equally green, which the fanning of the wings kept in a state of streaming fluctuation behind them as they came. One of them took his s

Sordello, "to protect the valley from the

nd flowers, occasionally turning its head, and licking its polished back. Before he could take off his eyes from the evil thing, the two

n eagle flashed down like lightning upon him, and bore him up to the region of fire, where the heat was so intense that it woke him, staring and looking round about with a pale face. His dream was a shadowing of the truth. He had actually come to another place,-to the entrance of Purgatory itself. Sordello had been left behind, Virgil alone remained

e sat, mute and watching, an angel in ash-coloured garments, holding a naked sword, which glanced with such intolerable brightness on Dante, whenev

ante, ascending the steps, with the encouragement of Virgil, fell at the angel's feet, and, after thrice beating himself on the breast, humbly asked admittance. The angel, with the point of his sword, inscribed the first letter of the word peccatum (sin) seven times on the petitioner's forehead; then, bidding him pray with tears for their erasement, and be cautious how he looked back, opene

ched a plain. It stretched as far as the eye cou

much life, that the sweet action of the angel seemed to be uttering the very word, "Hail!" and the submissive spirit of the Virgin to be no less impressed, like very wax, in her demeanour. The next story was that of David dancing and harping before the ark,-an action in which he seemed both less and gr

and horsemen, while the Roman eagles floated in gold over his head. The miserable creature spoke out loudly amo

of her misery, said, "Su

ill attend to thee,"

duties of another man," cried she,

, "for verily my duty shall be done before

as coming. He did so, and beheld strange figures advancing, the nature of which he could not make out at first, for they seeme

our sight, see no reason for advancing in the right path! Know ye not that we are worms, born

res in architecture that are used to support roofs or balconies, and that excite piteous fancies in the beho

n the Lord's Prayer, which they concluded with humbly stating, that they repeated t

heir all being so bent down; but a voice gave them the required direction; the speaker adding, that he wished he could raise his eyes, so as to see the living creature that stood

ufferers, who, eyeing him as well as he could, addressed him by name. The poet replied by exc

inting, lately kept the field against all comers, and now the cry is 'Giotto.' Thus, in song, a new Guido has deprived the first of his glory, and he perhaps is born who shall drive both out of the nest.[24] Fame is but a wind that changes about from all quarters. What does glory amount to at best, that a man should prefer living and growing old for it, to dying in the days of his nur

his name?" in

ion to think that he could hold Sienna in the hollow of his hand. Fifty

ante, "and not in the outer region,

in Sienna, and, trembling in every vein, beg money from the people to ransom a friend from captivity. Do I appe

e, with her despairing eyes, turned into stone amidst her children; and Saul, dead on his own sword in Gilboa; and Arachne, now half spider, at fault on her own broken web; and Rehoboam, for all his insolence, flying in terror in his chariot; and Alcm?on, who made his mother pay with her life for the ornament she received to betray his father; and Sennacherib, left dead by his son in the temple; and the head of Cyrus, th

irgil, "there is

He skewed the pilgrims the way up to the second circle; and then, beating his wings against the forehead

in spirit."[27] As he went, he perceived that he walked lighter, and was told by Virgil that the angel had freed him from one of the letters on his forehea

ed a mile, they heard the voices of invisible spirits passing them, uttering se

ther's shoulders, after the manner of beggars that ask alms near places of worship. Their eyes were sewn up, like those of hawks in training, but not so

y name," she said, "but sapient I was not[28], for I prayed God to defeat my countrymen; and when he had done so (as he had willed to do), I raised my bold face to heaven, and cried out to him, 'Now do thy worst, for I fear thee not!' I was like the bird in the fable, who thought

place, though for no long period. Far more do I fear the sufferings in th

of the Arno; upon which the other spirit, Rinier da Calboli, asked his friend why the stranger suppressed the name, as though it was something horrible. Guido said he well might; for the river, throughout its course, beheld none but bad men and persecutors of virtue. First, he said, it made its petty way by the sties of those brutal hogs, the people of Casentino, and then arrived at

mechanic founds a house in Bologna! a Bernardin di Fosco finds his dog-grass become a tree in Faenza! Wonder not, Tuscan, to see me weep, when I think of the noble spirits that we have lived with-of the Guidos of Prata, and the Ugolins of Azzo-of Federigo Tignoso and his band-of the Traversaros and Anastagios, families now ruined-and all the ladies and the cavaliers, the alternate employments and delights which wrapped us in a round of love and courtesy, where now there is nothing but ill-will! O castle of Brett

y me!" then dashed apart, like the thunder-bolt when it falls. It was Cain. The air had scarcely recovered its silence, when a second crash ensued from a different quarter near them,

ds. It was an angel coming to show them the ascent to the next circle, a way that was less steep than the last. While mounting, they heard the angel's voice singing behind them, "Blesse

t with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing:"[31]-and here she became silent, and the vision ended. The next was the lord of Athens, Pisistratus, calmly reproving his wife for wishing him to put to death her daughter's lover, who, in a transport, had embraced her in public. "If we are to be thus severe," said Pisistr

oices praying in unison for pardon to the "Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world." They were the spirits of the angry. Dante conversed with one of them on free-will and necessity; and after quitting him, and issuing by degrees from the cloud, beheld ill

e." He then, as Virgil and he ascended into the fourth circle, felt an air on his face, as if caused by the fanning of wings, ac

e of the new love that was in them. "Blessed Mary made haste," cried one, "to salute Elizabeth." "And C?sar," cried another, "to smite Pompey at Lerida."[35] "And the disobedient among the Israeli

umps of hands, and a pallid face. Dante looked earnestly at her, and his look acted upon her like sunshine upon cold. Her tongue was loosened; her feet made stra

e in the sea. I drew Ulysses out of his course with my song; and he that harbo

he cried angrily, "who is this?" Virgil approached, with his eyes fixed on the lady; and the lady tore away th

imes to no purpose. Let us move, and fin

rd directed them where to ascend, and they found an angel with them, who pointed his swan-like wings upward, and then flapped them against the

ed them, "My soul hath cleaved to the dust." Dante spoke to one, who turned out to be Pope Adrian the Fifth. The poet fell on his knees; but Adrian bade him arise and e

ou wast delivered of thy sacred burden. O good Fabricius! Virtue with poverty was thy choice, and not vice with riches." And then it told the story of Nicholas, who,

it would tell him, not for the sake of help, for which it looked elsewhere,

d hold of Poitou, Normandy, and Gascony; then, still to make amends, put Conradin to death and seized Naples; then, always to make amends, gave Saint Aquinas his dismissal to Heaven by poison. I see the time at hand when a descendant of mine will be called into Italy, and the spear that Judas jousted with[38] shall transfix the bowels of Florence.

of gold; and Midas, who obtained his wish, to the laughter of all time; and the thief Achan, who still seems frightened at the wrath of Joshua; and Sapphira and her husband, whom we accuse over again before the Apostles; and Heliodorus, whom we bless the hoofs of the angel's horse for trampling;[40] and Crassus, on

to fall in. The island of Delos shook not so awfully when Latona, hiding there, brought forth the twin eyes of Heaven. A shout then arose on every side, so enormous, that Virgil s

for the deliverance of a

hat of Statius, who had been converted to Christianity in the reign of Domitian.[42] Mutual astonishme

ircle of Avarice, not for that vice, b

weet-smelling fruit-tree, upon which a clear stream came tumbling from a rock beside it, and diffusing itself through the branches. The Latin poets went up to the tree, and were met by a voice which said, "Be chary of the fruit. Mary thought not of herself at Galilee, b

p with the poets-a pallid multitude, with hollow eyes, and bones staring through the skin. The sockets of their eyes looked like rings from which the gems had dropped.[43] One of them knew and accosted Dante, who could not recognise him till he heard him speak. It was Forese Donati, one of the poet's most intimate connexions. Dante, who had wept over his face when dead, could as little forbear weeping to see him thus hungering and thirsting, though

shall be for bidden from the pulpit to go exposing their naked bosoms. What savages or what infidels ever needed that? O

hed fellow-sufferers how it was that he stood there, a living

ve thee sorely. He that walks here before us took me out of that life; and through his guidance it is that I have

st for the eels which he used to smother in wine; and Ubaldino of Pila, grinding his teeth on air; and Archbishop Boniface of Ravenna, who fed jovially on his flock; and Rigogliosi of Forli, who had h

wish to speak wit

; "and yet, if thou art he whom I take thee to be, there is a damsel th

nderstand the l

would have him, heeding no manner but his dicta

t hindered the notary, and Guittone, and myself, from hitting the right natural point."

have a parting word with his friend, and to prophesy the violent end of the chief of his family, Corso, run away with and dragged at the heels of h

withholds; but a voice out of a thicket by the road-side warned the travellers not to stop, telling them that the tree was an offset from that of which Eve tasted. "Call to mind," said the voice

eard another voice of a nature that made Dante sta

aid the voice, "if it lose it

ess, as he drew nigh, with an air from the fanning of its wings fresh as the first breathing of the wind on a May morning, and fragrant as all its

ang the hymn beginning "God of consummate mercy!"[50] Dante was compelled to divide his attention between his own footsteps and theirs, in order to move without destruction. At the close of the hymn they cried aloud, "I know not a man!"[51] and then recommenced it; after which they aga

tenderly by the way, as emmets appear to do, when in passing they touch the antenn? of one another. These two multitudes parted with lo

redecessor in poetry, Guido Guinicelli, from whom he could not take his eyes for love and reverence, till the sufferer, who told him there was a greater than himself in the crowd, vani

nge into the flames themselves, and so cross the road to the ascent by which the summit of the mountain was gained. Dante, clasping his hands, and raising them aloft, recoiled in horror. The thought of all that he had just witnessed made him feel as if his ow

"Methinks I see her eyes beholding us." There was, indeed, a great light upon the quarter to which they were crossing; and out of the light issued a vo

s come. Unable to ascend farther in the darkness, they made themselves a bed, each of a stair in the rock;

hen to gather flowers; and as she bound the flowers into a garland, she sang, "I am Leah, gathering flowers to adorn myself, that my looks may seem pleasant to me in

, resuming their way to the mountain's top, stood upon it at last, and gazed round about them on the skirts of the terrestrial Paradise. The sun was sparkling bright over a green land, full of trees and flowers. Virgil then

agrance came from every part of the soil; a sweet unintermitting air streamed against the walker's face; and as the full-hearted birds, warbling on all sides, welcomed the morning's radiance into the trees, the trees thems

d. And yet it flowed under a perpetual depth of shade, which no beam either of sun or moon penetrated. Nevertheless the darkness was coloured with endless diversities of May-blossoms; and the poet was st

raw thee nearer to the stream, that I may understand the words thou singest. Thou remindest me of Proserpine, of the place she wa

er eyes gently as she came, and singing so that Dante could hear her. Then when she arrived at the water, she stopped, and raised her eyes towards him, and smiled, shewing him the flowers in her hands, and shifting them with her fingers

mbrance of evil deeds, and that of the other restoring all remembrance of good.[54] It was the region, she said, in which Adam and Eve had lived; and the poets had beheld it perhaps in thei

ming through the woods, followed by a dulcet melody. The poets resumed their way in a rapture of expectation, and saw the air before them glowing under the green boughs like fire. A divine spectacle ensued of holy mystery, with evangelical and apocalyp

vein, he turned round to Virgil for encouragement. Virgil was gone. At that moment, Paradise and Beatr

to weep." Then assuming a sterner attitude, and speaking in the tone of one who reserves the bitterest speech for the last, she added, "Observe me well. I am, as thou suspecte

s, beheld his face in the water, and hasti

an offended parent; such a flavour of

ut went no farther in the psalm than the words, "Thou hast set my feet in a large room." The tears o

oughts from remembrance of me, and gave himself to others. When I had risen from flesh to spirit, and increased in worth and beauty, then did I sink in his estimation, and he turned into other paths, and pursued false images of good that never keep their promise. In vain I obtained from Heaven the power of interfering in his behalf, and endeavoured to affect him with it night

o Dante, "who standest on the other side of t

enitent, that the words fai

s, "when I had given thee aims indeed, to aban

n from me, and the presence of

d have taught thee to disdain all perishable things, and aspire after the soul that had gone before thee. How could thy spirit endure to stoop to further chances, or to a childish girl,

lent and abashed

, "thus afflicts thee, lift up thy

t the maiden; and be beheld her, though still beneath her veil, as far surpassing her former self in loveliness, as that self had surpassed others

ike a weaver's shuttle, and immersing him when she arrived, the angels all the while singing, "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."[57] She then delivered him into the hands of the nymphs that had danced about the car,-nymphs on earth, bu

egenerate with the waters of Eunoe; and he felt pur

tnot

or d'orien

lieva nel s

ro infino a

miei ricomin

usci' fuor d

tristati gli o

ta, ch'ad am

tto rider

ci, ch'erano

a man destra

lo, e vidi q

, fuor ch'a l

'l ciel di

rional ve

ato sei di m

oriental sa

e air in its p

es, far as the

they felt as

ssued forth fr

t and thought ha

tar, which lets

rient laugh wi

sh that glimme

the right to

more, never o

Adam brought u

ejoicing in the

thern pole, b

had no power t

m's Progress," will allow me to congratulate them on arrivi

en seen, probably by stray navigators. An Arabian globe is even mentioned by M. Artaud (see Cary), in which the Southern Cross is set down. Mr. Cary, in his note on the passage, refers to Seneca's prediction of the discovery of America; most likely suggested by similar information. "But whatever," he adds, "may be thought of this, it is certain that the four stars are here symbolical of the four cardinal virtues;" and he refer

osen for his present office by the poet who has put Brutus into the devil's mouth in spite of his agreeing with Cato, and

ce. Perhaps it is to enjoin sincerity; especially as the region of expiation has now been entered, and sincerity is the first step to

tnot

nceva l'or

nnanzi, sì c

tremolar de

shadows now

tening dawn, s

off the trembl

tremolar d

e, both for the pic

all the pride and passion he has been shewing elsewhere, and the torments in which he has left his fellow-creatures. W

tnot

ne la ment

donna disi

uced; and Casella's being made to select a production from the pen of the man who asks

he passage in his s

erse, and verse m

the priest of

r happiest lines

e Fame leave to

lla, whom he

lder shades o

s, void of religion, and in his philosophy an epicurean." Translation of Dante, Smith's edition, p. 77. Thus King Manfredi ought to have been in a red-hot tomb, roasting for ever with Epicurus himself, and with the father o

suing is very remarkable and pleasant. Belacqua,

carried off from St. Francis by a devil, for having violated the conditions of penitenc

most affecting and compreh

to sarai tor

o de la l

erzo spirito

di me che

è; disfece

i che 'nna

' avea con l

findest thee

female soul),

was my pla

f my death. T

on my hand th

him into the marshes of Volterra, celebrated then, as now, for the pestiferous effects of the air. Never would he tell his wife the reason of her banishment into so dangerous a place. His pride did not deign to pronounce either complaint or accusation. He lived with her alone, in a deserted tower, of which I have been to see the ruins on the seashore; he never broke his disdainful silence, never replied to the questions of his youthful bride, never listened to her entreaties. He waited, unmoved by her, for the air to produce its fatal eff

ngs the world has but lately been made acquainted through the resear

l'ora che si fiacca." An exquisite

:" the beginning of a Roman-

setto. So, further on, he says, "masculine nose,"-maschio naso. He meant to imply the greater

a sovereign for whom he has been taught to entertain lit

tnot

ora che vol

, e inteneri

detto a' dolc

uovo pereg

ode squill

iorno pianger

repetition. It is, indeed, worthy

r, when love of h

sea, and longing

they bade swee

ilgrim now, o

hears the dista

mourn for th

ne in Gray's Elegy, not

nt

lls the knell

wever, the tone in th

rno pianger

h to his personal griefs to write a whole book full of such b

tnot

inum;"-a hymn sung

may be said to preside over light, and who is really invoked in maladies of the eyes. She was Dante's favourite saint, possibly for that reason

consciousness of sin; the second, ho

by the commentators to mean power to absolve; the si

audamus," the well-known

ugust

tnot

ete voi, che

ar l'angeli

iustizia sen

not, we

ose the ange

ven when freed fr

tnot

idon l

ggia Franco

to or suo, e

friendly metaphor states it), is with good reason supposed to be himself! He was right; but was the statement becoming? It was certainly not necessary. Dante, notwithstanding his friendship with Guido, appears to have had a grudge

ng. Mr. Cary, with some other commentators, thinks that the "trembling" implies fear of being refused. But does it not rather mean the agony of the humi

t would be difficult not to suppose it intended to work out some half sceptical purpose, if we did not call to mind the grave authority given to fables in the poet's treatise on

admire such passages, and yet fill his books so full of all which they renounced? "Oh," say his idolators, "he did it out of his very love for them, and his impatience to see them triumph." So said the Inquis

tnot

nce of a v in the adjective savia, which is also accented on the first syllable. It is almost as bad as if she had said in English, "Sophist I found myself, though Sophia is my name." It is pleasant, howev

o Dante's confessions. He owns to

s' io, mi fieno

empo; che po

sser con in

la paura on

del tormen

ncarco di là

fecting. It is curious to guess what sort of persons Dante could have a

f Athens, was turned to stone by Mercury, for distu

noise and violence express the anguish of the wanderer's mind. We are not to suppose, I conceive, that we see Cain. We know he has

e also, and wonderful as a variation upon that awful music; but Cain is the astonishment and the overwhelmingness. If it were not, however, for the second

30: St. Lu

: The stonin

nted. A murderess, too, of her son, changed into such a bird as the nightingale, was not a happy association of ideas in Homer, where Dante found it;

e similar requisite intimations at each successive step in Purgatory, the poet seemingly having forgotten to do so. It is nec

the fame and accomplishments of C?sar, and his being at the head of our Ghi

of it in the original has an intensity of the revolting, which outrag

for the blood-thirstiness of Capet's father. But when we find the man called, not the butcher, or that butcher, or butcher in reference to his species, but in plain local parlance "a butcher of Paris" (un beccaio di Parigi), and when this designation is followed up by the allusion to the extinction of the previous dynasty, the ordinary construction of the words appears indisputable. Dante seems to have had no ground for what h

in which there is a combat of this kind between Jesus an

tnot

io, quando

vendetta

ra tua nel t

elicate a morsel for any but himself," is here gravely anticipated as a positive compliment to God by the fierce poet of the thirteenth century, who h

s Dido's brother, and who murdered her husband, the priest Sich?us, for his riches. The term "parr

the Temple, thus supernaturally punished. Th

grand and beau

in the invention of the churchmen. Dante, in another passage, not necessary to give, confou

tnot

hiaje anella

l conceits of the time. The poet says, that the physiognomist who "reads the word OMO (homo,

de gli uomin

uivi conosci

orm the letter M, and the eyes the two O's. The enthusiast for Roman d

tnot

rgognate f

' ciel veloce

e avrian le b

his mode of preaching meekness, and threats of everlasting howling his reproof of a tune on Sundays. But, it will be said, he looked to consequences. Yes; and produced the worst himsel

s, who "Compound for sins they are inclined to, By damning those they have no mind to." He was a glutton, who could

disputed by some, of Dante's having availed himself of the license of the time; though, in justice to

riduci

eco, e quale

ave il memor

of person) thou wast with me, and what I was wi

ght of reading Virgil first made him think of living in a manner more becoming a man of intellect, or (possibly) that the Latin poet's description of ?neas's descent into hell turned his t

present volume.) Under that circumstance, it is hardly acting like a gentleman to speak of her at all; unless, indeed, he thought her a person who would be pleased with the notoriety arising even from the record o

celebrated and c

on un, c

a, noto; e

entro, vo s

ne tha

res; and what h

, embodying bu

ers of the day. The latter, in a sonnet given by Mr. Cary in the notes to his translation, says he shall be delighted to hear the trumpet, at the last day, dividing mankind into the happy and the tormented

49: Judg

ing of a hymn in the Roman Catholic church; now altere

said Mary unto the angel, How shall this

of authority, by spirits in all the sincerity of agonised penitence, is very remarkable. A dissertation, by some compete

art from its terminating comment no necessary intellectual suggestion; is rendered, by the, comment itself, hardly consistent with Lea

tnot

ramo in ramo

a in sul lit

scirocco fuo

rom branc

iny forests

olls the gath

ath from his

ping sou

n in the notes to the Decameron, ediz. Giunti, 1573, p. 62) is laid. See Dec., G. 5, N. 8, and Dryden's Theodore and Honor

Forgetfulness; Euno

tnot

alcun

ntime

esque editor of the Parnaso Italiano, and a very summary gentleman); "here used figuratively, though it is not a word fit to

the childish girl (pargoletta)

nità con sì

e liked them; and he should not have taunted them, whatever else t

allegory should not have been put into female shape; and when she is to be taken in her literal sense (as the poet also tells us she is), her treatment of th

bject of his affections and his own awakened merits. All the heights of love and wisdom terminate in charity; and charity, by very reason of its knowing the poorness of so many things, hat

tnot

with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, a

atrice had been