v. 14 Typhaeus.] The giant whom Jupiter is fabled to have overwhelmed
under the mountain Aetna from whence he vomits forth smoke and flame.
v. 77. Sprang through me from Charles and Rodolph.] “Sicily would be
still ruled by a race of monarchs, descended through me from Charles I
and Rodolph I the former my grandfather king of Naples and Sicily; the
latter emperor of Germany, my father-in-law; “both celebrated in the
Purgatory Canto, Vll.
v. 78. Had not ill lording.] “If the ill conduct of our governors in
Sicily had not excited the resentment and hatred of the people and
stimulated them to that dreadful massacre at the Sicilian vespers;” in
consequence of which the kingdom fell into the hands of Peter III of
Arragon, in 1282
v. 81. My brother’s foresight.] He seems to tax his brother Robert with
employing necessitous and greedy Catalonians to administer the affairs
of his kingdom.
v. 99. How bitter can spring up.] “How a covetous son can spring from a
liberal father.” Yet that father has himself been accused of avarice in
the Purgatory Canto XX. v. 78; though his general character was that of
a bounteous prince.
v. 125. Consult your teacher.] Aristole. [GREEK HERE] De Rep. 1. iii.
c. 4. “Since a state is made up of members differing from one another,
(for even as an animal, in the first instance, consists of soul and
body, and the soul, of reason and desire; and a family, of man and
woman, and property of master and slave; in like manner a state
consists both of all these and besides these of other dissimilar
kinds,) it necessarily follows that the excellence of all the members
of the state cannot be one and the same.”
v. 136. Esau.] Genesis c. xxv. 22.
v. 137. Quirinus.] Romulus, born of so obscure a father, that his
parentage was attributed to Mars.
CANTO IX
v. 2. O fair Clemenza.] Daughter of Charles Martel, and second wife of
Louis X. of France.
v. 2. The treachery.] He alludes to the occupation of the kingdom of
Sicily by Robert, in exclusion of his brother s son Carobert, or
Charles. Robert, the rightful heir. See G. Villani, 1. viii. c. 112.
v. 7. That saintly light.] Charles Martel.
v. 25. In that part.] Between Rialto and the Venetian territory, and
the sources of the rivers Brenta and Piava is situated a castle called
Romano, the birth-place of the famous tyrant Ezzolino or Azzolino, the
brother of Cunizza, who is now speaking. The tyrant we have seen in
“the river of blood.” Hell, Canto XII. v. 110.
v. 32. Cunizza.] The adventures of Cunizza, overcome by the influence
of her star, are related by the chronicler Rolandino of Padua, 1. i. c.
3, in Muratori Rer. It. Script. t. viii. p. 173.