v. 14. Orlando.l When Charlemain with all his peerage fell At
Fontarabia Milton, P. L. b. i. 586. See Warton’s Hist. of Eng. Poetrg,
v. i. sect. iii. p. 132. “This is the horn which Orlando won from the
giant Jatmund, and which as Turpin and the Islandic bards report, was
endued with magical power, and might be heard at the distance of twenty
miles.” Charlemain and Orlando are introduced in the Paradise, Canto
XVIII.
v. 36. Montereggnon.] A castle near Sienna.
v. 105. The fortunate vale.] The country near Carthage. See Liv. Hist.
l. xxx. and Lucan, Phars. l. iv. 590. Dante has kept the latter of
these writers in his eye throughout all this passage.
v. 123. Alcides.] The combat between Hercules Antaeus is adduced by the
Poet in his treatise “De Monarchia,” l. ii. as a proof of the judgment
of God displayed in the duel, according to the singular superstition of
those times.
v. 128. The tower of Carisenda.] The leaning tower at Bologna
CANTO XXXII.
v. 8. A tongue not us’d To infant babbling.] Ne da lingua, che chiami
mamma, o babbo. Dante in his treatise “ De Vulg. Eloq.” speaking of
words not admissble in the loftier, or as he calls it, tragic style of
poetry, says- “In quorum numero nec puerilia propter suam simplicitatem
ut Mamma et Babbo,” l. ii. c. vii.
v. 29. Tabernich or Pietrapana.] The one a mountain in Sclavonia, the
other in that tract of country called the Garfagnana, not far from
Lucca.
v. 33. To where modest shame appears.] “As high as to the face.”
v. 35. Moving their teeth in shrill note like the stork.] Mettendo i
denti in nota di cicogna. So Boccaccio, G. viii. n. 7. “Lo scolar
cattivello quasi cicogna divenuto si forte batteva i denti.”
v. 53. Who are these two.] Alessandro and Napoleone, sons of Alberto
Alberti, who murdered each other. They were proprietors of the valley
of Falterona, where the Bisenzio has its source, a river that falls
into the Arno about six miles from Florence.
v. 59. Not him,] Mordrec, son of King Arthur.
v. 60. Foccaccia.] Focaccia of Cancellieri, (the Pistoian family) whose
atrocious act of revenge against his uncle is said to have given rise
to the parties of the Bianchi and Neri, in the year 1300. See G.
Villani, Hist. l, viii. c. 37. and Macchiavelli, Hist. l. ii. The
account of the latter writer differs much from that given by Landino in
his Commentary.
v. 63. Mascheroni.] Sassol Mascheroni, a Florentiue, who also murdered
his uncle.
v. 66. Camiccione.] Camiccione de’ Pazzi of Valdarno, by whom his
kinsman Ubertino was treacherously pnt to death.
v. 67. Carlino.] One of the same family. He betrayed the Castel di
Piano Travigne, in Valdarno, to the Florentines, after the refugees of
the Bianca and Ghibelline party had defended it against a siege for
twenty-nine days, in the summer of 1302. See G. Villani, l. viii. c. 52
and Dino Compagni, l. ii.