Epic poetry, Italian -- Translations into English; Italian poetry -- To 1400 -- Translations into English
v. 66. Young Conradine.] Charles of Anjou put Conradine to death in
1268; and became King of Naples. See Hell, Canto XXVIII, 16, and Note.
v. 67. Th’ angelic teacher.] Thomas Aquinas. He was reported to have
been poisoned by a physician, who wished to ingratiate himself with
Charles of Anjou. G. Villani, I. ix. c. 218. We shall find him in the
Paradise, Canto X.
v. 69. Another Charles.] Charles of Valois, brother of Philip IV, was
sent by Pope Boniface VIII to settle the disturbed state of Florence.
In consequence of the measures he adopted for that purpose, our poet
and his friend, were condemned to exile and death.
v. 71. -with that lance Which the arch-traitor tilted with.]
con la lancia Con la qual giostro Guida.
If I remember right, in one of the old romances, Judas is represented
tilting with our Saviour.
v. 78. The other.] Charles, King of Naples, the eldest son of Charles
of Anjou, having, contrary to the directions of his father, engaged
with Ruggier de Lauria, the admiral of Peter of Arragon, was made
prisoner and carried into Sicily, June, 1284. He afterwards, in
consideration of a large sum of money, married his daughter to Azzo
VI11, Marquis of Ferrara.
v. 85. The flower-de-luce.] Boniface VIII was seized at Alagna in
Campagna, by order of Philip IV., in the year 1303, and soon after died
of grief. G. Villani, 1. viii. c. 63.
v. 94. Into the temple.] It is uncertain whether our Poet alludes still
to the event mentioned in the preceding Note, or to the destruction of
the order of the Templars in 1310, but the latter appears more
probable.
v. 103. Pygmalion.] Virg. Aen. 1. i. 348.
v. 107. Achan.] Joshua, c. vii.
v. 111. Heliodorus.] 2 Maccabees, c. iii. 25. “For there appeared unto
them a horse, with a terrible rider upon him, and adorned with a very
fair covering, and he ran fiercely and smote at Heliodorus with his
forefeet.”
v. 112. Thracia’s king.] Polymnestor, the murderer of Polydorus. Hell,
Canto XXX, 19.
v. 114. Crassus.] Marcus Crassus, who fell miserably in the Parthian
war. See Appian, Parthica.
CANTO XXI
v. 26. She.] Lachesis, one of the three fates.
v. 43. —that, which heaven in itself Doth of itself receive.] Venturi,
I think rightly interprets this to be light.
v. 49. Thaumantian.] Figlia di Taumante [GREEK HERE]
Compare Plato, Theaet. v. ii. p. 76. Bip. edit., Virg; Aen. ix. 5, and
Spenser, Faery Queen, b. v. c. 3. st. 25.
v. 85. The name.] The name of Poet.
v. 89. From Tolosa.] Dante, as many others have done, confounds Statius
the poet, who was a Neapolitan, with a rhetorician of the same name,
who was of Tolosa, or Thoulouse. Thus Chaucer, Temple of Fame, b. iii.
The Tholason, that height Stace.
v. 94. Fell.] Statius lived to write only a small part of the
Achilleid.
CANTO XXII
v. 5. Blessed.] Matt. v. 6.
v. 14. Aquinum’s bard.] Juvenal had celebrated his contemporary
Statius, Sat. vii. 82; though some critics imagine that there is a
secret derision couched under his praise.
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