[321] _Philip Argenti_: A Florentine gentleman related to the great family of the Adimari, and a contemporary of Dante's. Boccaccio in his commentary describes him as a cavalier, very rich, and so ostentatious that he once shod his horse with silver, whence his surname. In the _Decameron_ (ix. 8) he is introduced as violently assaulting--tearing out his hair and dragging him in the mire--the victim of a practical joke played by the Ciacco of Canto vi. Some, without reason, suppose that Dante shows such severity to him because he was a Black, and so a political opponent of his own. [322] _Dis_: A name of Pluto, the god of the infernal regions. [323] _Burghers_: The city of Dis composes the Sixth Circle, and, as immediately appears, is populated by demons. The sinners punished in it are not mentioned at all in this Canto, and it seems more reasonable to apply _burghers_ to the demons than to the shades. They are called _gravi_, generally taken to mean sore burdened, and the description is then applicable to the shades; but _grave_ also bears the sense of cruel, and may describe the fierceness of the devils. Though the city is inhabited by the subjects of Dis, he is found as Lucifer at the very bottom of the pit. By some critics the whole of the lower Inferno, all that lies beyond this point, is regarded as being the city of Dis. But it is the Sixth Circle, with its minarets, that is the city; its walls, however, serving as bulwarks for all the lower Inferno. The shape of the city is, of course, that of a circular belt. Here it may be noted that the Fifth and Sixth Circles are on the same level; the water of Styx, which as a marsh covers the Fifth, is gathered into a moat to surround the walls of the Sixth. [324] _Mosques_: The feature of an Infidel city that first struck crusader and pilgrim. [325] _The gate_: They have floated across the stagnant marsh into the deeper waters of the moat, and up to the gate where Phlegyas is used to land his passengers. It may be a question whether his services are required for all who are doomed to the lower Inferno, or only for those bound to the city. [326] _From Heaven_: 'Rained from Heaven.' Fallen angels. [327] _Seven times_: Given as a round number. [328] _Yes and No_: He will return--He will not return. The demons have said that Virgil shall remain, and he has promised Dante not to desert him. [329] _Who dare, etc._: Virgil knows the hindrance is only temporary, but wonders what superior devilish power can have incited the demons to deny him entrance. The incident displays the fallen angels as being still rebellious, and is at the same time skilfully conceived to mark a pause before Dante enters on the lower Inferno. [330] _They showed it, etc._: At the gate of Inferno, on the occasion of Christ's descent to Limbo. The reference is to the words in the Missal service for Easter Eve: 'This is the night in which, having burst the bonds of death, Christ victoriously ascended from Hell.'