" O Tuscan ! thou, who through the city of fire Alive art passing, so discreet of speech : Here, please thee, stay awhile. Thy utterance Declares the place of thy nativity To be that noble land, with which perchance I too severely dealt." Sudden that sound Forth issued from a vault, whereat, in fear, I somewhat closer to my leader's side Approaching, he thus spake : " What dost thou ? Turn : Lol Farinata' there, who hath himself Uplifted : from his girdle upwards, all Exposed, behold him." On his face was mine Already fix'd : his breast and forehead there Erecting, seem'd as in high scorn he held E'en hell. Between the sepulchres, to him My guide thrust me, with fearless hands and prompt; This warning added: "See thy words be clear." He, soon as there I stood at the tomb's foot. Eyed me a space ; then in disdainful mood Address'd me : " Say what ancestors were thine." I, willing to obey him, straight reveal'd The whole, nor kept back aught : whence he, his brow Somewhat uplifting, cried : " Fiercely were they Adverse to me, my party, and the blood From whence I sprang : twice,* therefore, I abroad Scatter'd them." "Though driven out, yet they each time From all parts," answer'd I, " return'd ; an art Which yours have shown they are not skill 'd to learn." Then, peering forth from the unclosed jaw, Rose from his side a shade, high as the chin. • Farinata. — Farinata degli Uberti, a noble Floren- tine, was ihe leader of the Ghibelline faction, when they obtained a signal victory over the Giielfi at Montaperto, near the river Arbia. Macchiavelli calls him "a man of exalted soul, and great military talents," "History of Florence," b. ii. His grandson, Bonifacio, or, as he is commonly called, Fazio degli Uberti, wrote a poem, en- titled the " Dittamondo," in imitation of Dante. I shall have frequent occasion to refer to it throughout these Notes. At the conclusion of cap. 27, L ii. he makes mention of his ancestor Farinata. See Note 4 to Life of Dante. ' Twice.— The first time in 1248, when they were driven out by Frederick II.— see G. Villani, lib. vi., c. xxxiv. ; and the second time in 1260. See Note to v. 83. ' Rose from his side a shade. — The spirit of Caval- cante Cavalcanti, a noble Florentine, of the Guelph Leaning, methought, upon its knees upraised. It look'd around, as eager to explore If there were other with me ; but perceiving That fond imagination quench'd, with tears Thus spake : " If thou through this blind prison go'st, Led by thy lofty genius and profound, Where is my son P and wherefore not with thee ?" I straight replied : " Not of myself I come ; By him, who there expects me, through this clime Conducted, whom perchance Guido thy son Had in contempt." Already had his words And mode of punishment read me his name, Whence I so fully answer'd. He at once Exclaim'd, up starting, "How! said'st thou, he had? No longer lives he? Strikes not on his eye The blessed daylight?" Then, of some delay I made ere my reply, aware, down fell Supine, nor after forth appear'd he more. Meanwhile the other, great of soul, near whom I yet was station'd, changed not countenance stern, ' 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. xli., "of a philosophical and elegant mind, if he had not been too delicate and fas- tidious." And Dino Compagni terms him "a young and noble knight, brave and courteous, but of a lofty, scorn- ful spirit, much addicted to solitude and study," Mura- tori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, 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. ' Guido thy son had in contempt. — Guido Calvacanti, being more given to philosophy than poetry, was perhaps no great admirer of Virgil. Some poetical compositions by Guido are, however, still extant ; and his reputation for skill in the art was such as to eclipse that of his prede- cessor and namesake, Guido Guinicelli. His "Canzone sopra il Terreno Amore'' was thought worthy of being illustrated by numerous and ample commentaries ; Cres- cimbeni, " Istoria della Volgar Poesia," 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 barque were placed. A gallant barque with magic virtue graced, Swift at our will with every wind to fly ; .So that no changes of the shifting sky, No stormy terrors of the watery waste. Might bar our course, but heighten still our taste Of sprightly joy, and of out social tie :. Then that my Lucy, Lucy fair and free, With those soft nymphs, on whom your souls are bent, The kind magician might to us convey, To talk of love throughout the live-long day ; And that each fair might be as well content, As I in truth believe our hearts would be." The two friends, here called Hcr.ry 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.," 8vo, London, 1835, p. 407. » Said'st thou, he had. — In .schylus the shade of Darius is represented as inquiring with similar anxiety aficr the fate of his son Xerxes : — "' Alossa. MovaOrt il ZipKrivefiriitiiv (paaiv oinroXXui' iura — Darius, ndij le Irj icai ttoI Tf\eiTfv; iart rif a(iiTq(iia." HEI'SAI, 741, Blomfield'sedit. " Aiossa. — Xerxes astonish'd, desolate, alone — Ghost of Dar. How will this end ? Nay, pause not. Is he safe?" The Persians. Potter's Translation party. Nor moved the neck, nor bent his ribbed side. "And if," continuing the first discourse, *'They in this art," he cried, "small skill have shown; That doth torment me more e'en than this bed. But not yet fifty times* shall be relumed Her aspect, who reigns here queen of this realm Ere thou shalt know the full weight of that art. So to the pleasant world mayst thou return,' As thou shalt tell me why, in all their laws, Against my kin this people is so fell." " The slaughter + and great havoc," I replied, "That colour'd' Arbia's flood with crimson stain- To these impute, that in our hallow'd dome Such orisons 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 stood," when, by consent Of all, Florence had to the ground been razed. The one who openly forbade the deed." " So may thy lineage''' find at last repose," ' Not yet fifty times. — " Not fifty • months shall be passed, before thou shalt learn, by woful experience, the difficulty of returning from banishment to thy native city." ' Queen of this realm. — The moon, one of whose titles in heathen mythology was Proserpine, queen of the shades below. • So to the pleasant world mayst thou return. — " E se tu mai nel dolce mondo reggi." Lombard! would construe this : " And if thou ever remain in the plcas.int 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 unguam ; and next that "reggi " is too unlike riedito be put for it. A more intimate acquaintance with the early Florentine writers would have taught him that " mai " is used in other senses than those whioh unguam appears to have had, particularly in that of pur, " yet ;" as may be seen in the notes to the " Decameron" p. 43, ed. Giunti, '573 ; and that the old writers both of prose and verse changed riedo into reggio, as o Jiedo \.\if ma.At 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 " Redcunt flores " " Reggiono i fieri." * Tu 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, History of Flore ice,h. ii., and G. Villani,