v. 102. Mosca.] Buondelmonte was engaged to marry a lady of the Amidei family, but broke his promise and united himself to one of the Donati. This was so much resented by the former, that a meeting of themselves and their kinsmen was held, to consider of the best means of revenging the insult. Mosca degli Uberti persuaded them to resolve on the assassination of Buondelmonte, exclaiming to them “the thing once done, there is an end.” The counsel and its effects were the source of many terrible calamities to the state of Florence. “This murder,” says G. Villani, l. v. c. 38, “was the cause and beginning of the accursed Guelph and Ghibelline parties in Florence.” It happened in 1215. See the Paradise, Canto XVI. 139. v. 111. The boon companion.] What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted? Shakespeare, 2 Hen. VI. a. iii. s. 2. v. 160. Bertrand.] Bertrand de Born, Vicomte de Hautefort, near Perigueux in Guienne, who incited John to rebel against his father, Henry II. of England. Bertrand holds a distinguished place among the Provencal poets. He is quoted in Dante, “De Vulg. Eloq.” l. ii. c. 2. For the translation of some extracts from his poems, see Millot, Hist. Litteraire des Troubadors t. i. p. 210; but the historical parts of that work are, I believe, not to be relied on. CANTO XXIX. v. 26. Geri of Bello.] A kinsman of the Poet’s, who was murdered by one of the Sacchetti family. His being placed here, may be considered as a proof that Dante was more impartial in the allotment of his punishments than has generally been supposed. v. 44. As were the torment.] It is very probable that these lines gave Milton the idea of his celebrated description: Immediately a place Before their eyes appear’d, sad, noisome, dark, A lasar-house it seem’d, wherein were laid Numbers of all diseas’d, all maladies, &c. P. L. b. xi. 477. v. 45. Valdichiana.] The valley through which passes the river Chiana, bounded by Arezzo, Cortona, Montepulciano, and Chiusi. In the heat of autumn it was formerly rendered unwholesome by the stagnation of the water, but has since been drained by the Emperor Leopold II. The Chiana is mentioned as a remarkably sluggish stream, in the Paradise, Canto XIII. 21. v. 47. Maremma’s pestilent fen.] See Note to Canto XXV. v. 18. v. 58. In Aegina.] He alludes to the fable of the ants changed into Myrmidons. Ovid, Met. 1. vii. v. 104. Arezzo was my dwelling.] Grifolino of Arezzo, who promised Albero, son of the Bishop of Sienna, that he would teach him the art of flying; and because be did not keep his promise, Albero prevailed on his father to have him burnt for a necromancer. v. 117. Was ever race Light as Sienna’s?] The same imputation is again cast on the Siennese, Purg. Canto XIII. 141.