v. 52. Ciacco.] So called from his inordinate appetite: Ciacco, in Italian, signifying a pig. The real name of this glutton has not been transmitted to us. He is introduced in Boccaccio's Decameron, Giorn. ix. Nov. 8.
v. 61. The divided city.] The city of Florence, divided into the Bianchi and Neri factions.
v. 65. The wild party from the woods.] So called, because it was headed by Veri de' Cerchi, whose family had lately come into the city from Acone, and the woody country of the Val di Nievole.
v. 66. The other.] The opposite parts of the Neri, at the head of which was Corso Donati.
v. 67. This must fall.] The Bianchi.
v. 69. Of one, who under shore Now rests.] Charles of Valois, by whose means the Neri were replaced.
v. 73. The just are two in number.] Who these two were, the commentators are not agreed.
v. 79. Of Farinata and Tegghiaio.] See Canto X. and Notes, and Canto XVI, and Notes.
v. 80. Giacopo.] Giacopo Rusticucci. See Canto XVI, and Notes.
v. 81. Arrigo, Mosca.] Of Arrigo, who is said by the commentators to have been of the noble family of the Fifanti, no mention afterwards occurs. Mosca degli Uberti is introduced in Canto XXVIII. v.
108. Consult thy knowledge.] We are referred to the following passage in St. Augustin:--"Cum fiet resurrectio carnis, et bonorum gaudia et malorum tormenta majora erunt. "--At the resurrection of the flesh, both the happiness of the good and the torments of the wicked will beincreased."v. 1. Ah me! O Satan! Satan!] Pape Satan, Pape Satan, aleppe. Pape is said by the commentators to be the same as the Latin word papae! "strange!" Of aleppe they do not give a more satisfactory account. See the Life of Benvenuto Cellini, translated by Dr. Nugent, v. ii. b. iii c. vii. p 113, where he mentions "having heard the words Paix, paix, Satan! allez, paix! in the court of justice at Paris. I recollected what Dante said, when he with his master Virgil entered the gates of hell: for Dante, and Giotto the painter, were together in France, and visited Paris with particular attention, where the court of justice may be considered as hell. Hence it is that Dante, who was likewise perfect master of the French, made use of that expression, and I have often been surprised that it was never understood in that sense."v. 12. The first adulterer proud.] Satan.
v. 22. E'en as a billow.] As when two billows in the Irish sowndes Forcibly driven with contrarie tides Do meet together, each aback rebounds With roaring rage, and dashing on all sides, That filleth all the sea with foam, divides The doubtful current into divers waves. Spenser,F.Q. b. iv. c. 1. st. 42.
v. 48. Popes and cardinals.] Ariosto, having personified Avarice as a strange and hideous monster, says of her-- Peggio facea nella Romana corte Che v'avea uccisi Cardinali e Papi. Orl. Fur. c. xxvi. st. 32. Worse did she in the court of Rome, for there She had slain Popes and Cardinals.
v. 91. By necessity.] This sentiment called forth the reprehension of Cecco d'Ascoli, in his Acerba, l. 1. c. i.
In cio peccasti, O Fiorentin poeta, &c. Herein, O bard of Florence, didst thou err Laying it down that fortune's largesses Are fated to their goal. Fortune is none, That reason cannot conquer. Mark thou, Dante, If any argument may gainsay this.
v. 18. Phlegyas.] Phlegyas, who was so incensed against Apollo for having violated his daughter Coronis, that he set fire to the temple of that deity, by whose vengeance he was cast into Tartarus. See Virg. Aen. l. vi. 618.
v. 59. Filippo Argenti.] Boccaccio tells us, "he was a man remarkable for the large proportions and extraordinary vigor of his bodily frame, and the extreme waywardness and irascibility of his temper." Decam. g. ix. n. 8.
v. 66. The city, that of Dis is nam'd.] So Ariosto. Orl. Fur. c. xl. st. 32v. 94. Seven times.] The commentators, says Venturi, perplex themselves with the inquiry what seven perils these were from which Dante had been delivered by Virgil. Reckoning the beasts in the first Canto as one of them, and adding Charon, Minos, Cerberus, Plutus, Phlegyas and Filippo Argenti, as so many others, we shall have the number, and if this be not satisfactory, we may suppose a determinate to have been put for an indeterminate number.
v. 109. At war 'twixt will and will not.] Che si, e no nel capo mi tenzona. So Boccaccio, Ninf. Fiesol. st. 233.
Il si e il no nel capo gli contende. The words I have adopted as a translation, are Shakespeare's, Measure for Measure. a. ii. s. 1.
v. 122. This their insolence, not new.] Virgil assures our poet, that these evil spirits had formerly shown the same insolence when our Savior descended into hell. They attempted to prevent him from entering at the gate, over which Dante had read the fatal inscription. "That gate which," says the Roman poet, "an angel has just passed, by whose aid we shall overcome this opposition, and gain admittance into the city."v. 1. The hue.] Virgil, perceiving that Dante was pale with fear, restrained those outward tokens of displeasure which his own countenance had betrayed.
v. 23. Erictho.] Erictho, a Thessalian sorceress, according to Lucan, Pharsal. l. vi. was employed by Sextus, son of Pompey the Great, to conjure up a spirit, who should inform him of the issue of the civil wars between his father and Caesar.
v. 25. No long space my flesh Was naked of me.] Quae corpus complexa animae tam fortis inane. Ovid. Met. l. xiii f. 2 Dante appears to have fallen into a strange anachronism. Virgil's death did not happen till long after this period.
v. 42. Adders and cerastes.] Vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis. Virg. Aen. l. vi. 281. --spinaque vagi torquente cerastae . . . et torrida dipsas Et gravis in geminum vergens eaput amphisbaena. Lucan. Pharsal. l.
ix. 719. So Milton: Scorpion and asp, and amphisbaena dire, Cerastes horn'd, hydrus and elops drear, And dipsas. P. L. b. x. 524.
v. 67. A wind.] Imitated by Berni, Orl. Inn. l. 1. e. ii. st. 6.
