“ ... in his whole body, sick And worse in mind, and who was evil born” ( ... mal del corpo intero--E della mente peggio, e che mal nacque. _Purg._ xviii. 124, etc.), and how his father “with one foot in the grave” (con un piè dentro la fossa) had “put him in the place of the true pastor” (ha posto in loco di suo pastor vero). The reason of Dante’s dislike for Alboino, who he must have known intimately, has never come to light. The man’s want of energy, his indifference as to the Ghibelline cause, his inefficiency as a warrior, may perhaps have aroused that contempt for him which Dante expresses most openly in the _Convito_, iv. 16. Cangrande on the other hand calls forth his admiration; and that Dante dedicated to him the last part of the _Divine Comedy_ is proof enough of the esteem and affection in which he held him. Another proof too is forthcoming in the fact adduced by Boccaccio and Giovanni Querini that Dante was wont to send the cantos of the _Paradiso_ as he wrote them, and before submitting them to any other eye, to the lord of Verona. The poet recognises too the renown of Cangrande’s deeds by putting into the mouth of Cacciaguida the prophecy as to “how notable his works shall be” (che notabile fien l’opere sue); words so concise and so forcible in their depth and truth that they are introduced in the epitaph above Cangrande’s tomb in a Latin form. “Little is known for certain of Dante’s actual residence in Verona,” says Cipolla; though he quotes from Ampère’s _Voyage Dantesque_ to show the favourable impression that the town made on this pilgrim not generally prone to be satisfied, nor minded to refrain from a sharp and unfriendly criticism. “Here at last is an Italian city of which Dante has said nothing injurious. She owes this almost unique exception to the hospitality which she offered him.” Dante alludes several times to the town itself in his writings. He speaks so graphically of the game of the Palio (_Inf._ xv. 121) as to make one fancy he must have witnessed it in person. It has been said that his idea of the “bolgie” of the _Inferno_ came to him from the shape of the arena at Verona, and that standing on the summit of that vast building he conceived the notion of creating his Hell on the same lines as those presented before his eyes. Whether this is really so or not cannot be definitely affirmed, but it is certain that no other poet has mapped out an Inferno on the same lines as that of Dante, while the form he has given it resembles very closely that of the amphitheatre of Verona. Other memories than those which spoke to him only of the town were also present to Dante’s mind when he was writing his great poem. The country in the heart of the valley of the Adige is depicted by him at the opening of the twelfth canto of the _Inferno_; and the surroundings of the Lake of Garda are spoken of equally in the _Inferno_ at canto XX. 64, etc.