[338] {288}[For an account of the Benedictine Monastery of San Liberatore alla Majella, which lies to the south of Manoppello (eight miles southwest of Chieto, in the Abruzzi), see _Monumenti Storici ed. Artistici degli Abruzzi_, by V. Bindi, Naples, 1889, Part I. (Testo), pp. 655, _sq_. The abbey is in a ruinous condition, but on the walls of "_un ampio porticato_," there is still to be seen a fresco of Charlemagne, holding in his hands the deed of gift of the Abbey lands.] [339] [That is, the valley of Jehoshaphat, the "valley where Jehovah judges" (see Joel iii. 2-12); and, hence, a favourite burial-ground of Jews and Moslems.] [340] [The text as it stands is meaningless. Probably Byron wrote "dost arise." The reference is no doubt to the supposed restoration of Florence by Charlemagne.] [341] {289}["The _Morgante_ is in truth the epic of treason, and the character of Gano, as an accomplished but not utterly abandoned Judas, is admirably sustained throughout."--_Renaissance in Italy_, 1881, iv. 444.] [342] ["Così per Carlo Magno e per Orlando, Due ne segui lo mio attento sguardo, Com' occhio segue suo falcon volando." _Del Paradiso_, Canto XVIII. lines 43-45.] [343] {296}["Macon" is another form of "Mahomet." Compare-- "O Macon! break in twain the steeléd lance." Fairfax's Tasso, _Gerusalemme Liberata_, book ix. stanza xxx. line i.] [344] [Pulci seems to have been the originator of the humorous understatement. Compare-- "And the subsequent proceedings interested him no more." Bret Harte's Poems, _The Society upon the Stanislaus_, line 26.] [345] {303} "Gli dette in su la testa un gran punzone." It is strange that Pulci should have literally anticipated the technical terms of my old friend and master, Jackson, and the art which he has carried to its highest pitch. "_A punch on the head_" or "_a punch in the head_"--"un punzone in su la testa,"--is the exact and frequent phrase of our best pugilists, who little dream that they are talking the purest Tuscan. [346] {304}["Half a dozen invectives against tyranny confiscate C^d.^ H^d.^ in a month; and eight and twenty cantos of quizzing Monks, Knights, and Church Government, are let loose for centuries."--Letter to Murray, May 8, 1820, _Letters_, 1901, v. 21.]