Epic poetry, Italian -- Translations into English; Italian poetry -- To 1400 -- Translations into English
v. 9. How doth a little failing wound thee sore.] (Ch’era al cor
picciol fallo amaro morso. Tasso, G. L. c. x. st. 59.
v. 11. Haste, that mars all decency of act. Aristotle in his Physiog
iii. reekons it among the “the signs of an impudent man,” that he is
“quick in his motions.” Compare Sophoeles, Electra, 878.
v. 26. To Naples.] Virgil died at Brundusium, from whence his body is
said to have been removed to Naples.
v. 38. Desiring fruitlessly.] See H. Canto IV, 39.
v. 49. ’Twixt Lerice and Turbia.] At that time the two extremities of
the Genoese republic, the former on the east, the latter on the west. A
very ingenious writer has had occasion, for a different purpose, to
mention one of these places as remarkably secluded by its mountainous
situation “On an eminence among the mountains, between the two little
cities, Nice and Manoca, is the village of Torbia, a name formed from
the Greek [GREEK HERE] Mitford on the Harmony of Language, sect. x. p.
351. 2d edit.
v. 78. As sheep.] The imitative nature of these animals supplies our
Poet with another comparison in his Convito Opere, t. i. p 34. Ediz.
Ven. 1793.
v. 110. Manfredi. King of Naples and Sicily, and the natural son of
Frederick II. He was lively end agreeable in his manners, and delighted
in poetry, music, and dancing. But he was luxurious and ambitious. Void
of religion, and in his philosophy an Epicurean. See G. Villani l. vi.
c. xlvii. and Mr. Matthias’s Tiraboschi, v. I. p. 38. He fell in the
battle with Charles of Anjou in 1265, alluded to in Canto XXVIII, of
Hell, v. 13, “Dying, excommunicated, King Charles did allow of his
being buried in sacred ground, but he was interred near the bridge of
Benevento, and on his grave there was cast a stone by every one of the
army whence there was formed a great mound of stones. But some ave
said, that afterwards, by command of the Pope. the Bishop of Cosenza
took up his body and sent it out of the kingdom, because it was the
land of the church, and that it was buried by the river Verde, on the
borders of the kingdom and of Carapagna. this, however, we do not
affirm.” G. Villani, Hist. l. vii. c. 9.
v. 111. Costanza.] See Paradise Canto III. v. 121.
v. 112. My fair daughter.] Costanza, the daughter of Manfredi, and wife
of Peter III. King of Arragon, by whom she was mother to Frederick,
King of Sicily and James, King of Arragon With the latter of these she
was at Rome 1296. See G. Villani, 1. viii. c. 18. and notes to Canto
VII.
v. 122. Clement.] Pope Clement IV.
v. 127. The stream of Verde.] A river near Ascoli, that falls into he
Toronto. The “xtinguished lights “ formed part of the ceremony t the
interment of one excommunicated.
v. 130. Hope.] Mentre che la speranza ha fior del verde. Tasso, G. L.
c. xix. st. 53. —infin che verde e fior di speme.
CANTO IV
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