v. 140. Gaville.] Francesco Guercio Cavalcante was killed at Gaville, near Florence; and in revenge of his death several inhabitants of that district were put to death.
v. 7. But if our minds.]
Namque sub Auroram, jam dormitante lucerna, Somnia quo cerni tempore vera solent. Ovid, Epist. xixThe same poetical superstition is alluded to in the Purgatory, Cant. IX. and XXVII.
v. 9. Shall feel what Prato.] The poet prognosticates the calamities which were soon to befal his native city, and which he says, even her nearest neighbor, Prato, would wish her. The calamities more particularly pointed at, are said to be the fall of a wooden bridge over the Arno, in May, 1304, where a large multitude were assembled to witness a representation of hell nnd the infernal torments, in consequence of which accident many lives were lost; and a conflagration that in the following month destroyed more than seventeen hundred houses, many ofthem sumptuous buildings. See G. Villani, Hist. l. viii. c. 70 and 71.
v. 22. More than I am wont.] "When I reflect on the punishment allotted to those who do not give sincere and upright advice to others I am more anxious than ever not to abuse to so bad a purpose those talents, whatever they may be, which Nature, or rather Providence, has conferred on me." It is probable that this declaration was the result of real feeling Textd have given great weight to any opinion or party he had espoused, and to whom indigence and exile might have offerred strong temptations to deviate from that line of conduct which a strict sense of duty prescribed.
v. 35. as he, whose wrongs.] Kings, b. ii. c. ii.
v. 54. ascending from that funeral pile.] The flame is said to have divided on the funeral pile which consumed tile bodies of Eteocles and Polynices, as if conscious of the enmity that actuated them while living. Ecce iterum fratris, &c. Statius, Theb. l. xii. Ostendens confectas flamma,&c. Lucan, Pharsal. l. 1. 145.
v. 60. The ambush of the horse.] "The ambush of the wooden horse, that caused Aeneas to quit the city of Troy and seek his fortune in Italy, where his descendants founded the Roman empire."v. 91. Caieta.] Virgil, Aeneid. l. vii. 1. v. 93. Nor fondness for my son]
Imitated hp Tasso, G. L. c. viii. Ne timor di fatica o di periglio, Ne vaghezza del regno, ne pietade Del vecchio genitor, si degno affetto Intiepedir nel generoso petto. This imagined voyage of Ulysses into the Atlantic is alluded to by Pulci. E sopratutto commendava Ulisse, Che per veder nell' altro mondo gisse. Morg. Magg. c. xxv And by Tasso, G. L. c.
xv. 25.
v. 106. The strait pass.] The straits of Gibraltar.
v. 122. Made our oars wings.l So Chiabrera, Cant. Eroiche. xiii Faro de'remi un volo. And Tasso Ibid. 26.
v. 128. A mountain dim.] The mountain of Purgatorgv. 6. The Sicilian Bull.] The engine of torture invented by Perillus, for the tyrant Phalaris.
v. 26. Of the mountains there.] Montefeltro.
v. 38. Polenta's eagle.] Guido Novello da Polenta, who bore an eagle for his coat of arms. The name of Polenta was derived from a castle so called in the neighbourhood of Brittonoro. Cervia is a small maritime city, about fifteen miles to the south of Ravenna. Guido was the son of Ostasio da Polenta, and made himself master of Ravenna, in 1265. In 1322 he was deprived of his sovereignty, and died at Bologna in the year following. This last and most munificent patron of Dante is himself enumerated, by the historian of Italian literature, among the poets of his time. Tiraboschi, Storia della Lett. Ital. t. v. 1. iii. c. ii. 13. The passnge in the text might have removed the uncertainty wwhich Tiraboschi expressed, respecting the duration of Guido's absence from Ravenna, when he was driven from that city in 1295, by the arms of Pietro, archbishop of Monreale. It must evidently have been very short, since his government is here represented (in 1300) as not having suffered any material disturbance for many years.
v. 41. The land.l The territory of Forli, the inhabitants of which, in 1282, mere enabled, hy the strategem of Guido da Montefeltro, who then governed it, to defeat with great slaughter the French army by which it had been besieged. See G. Villani, l. vii. c. 81. The poet informs Guido, its former ruler, that it is now in the possession of Sinibaldo Ordolaffi, or Ardelaffi, whom he designates by his coat of arms, a lion vert.
v. 43. The old mastiff of Verucchio and the young.] Malatesta and Malatestino his son, lords of Rimini, called, from their ferocity, the mastiffs of Verruchio, which was the name of their castle.
v. 44. Montagna.] Montagna de'Parcitati, a noble knight, and leader of the Ghibelline party at Rimini, murdered by Malatestino.
v. 46. Lamone's city and Santerno's.] Lamone is the river at Faenza, and Santerno at Imola.
v. 47. The lion of the snowy lair.] Machinardo Pagano, whose arms were a lion azure on a field argent; mentioned again in the Purgatory,Canto XIV. 122. See G. Villani passim, where he is called Machinardo da Susinana.
v. 50. Whose flank is wash'd of SSavio's wave.] Cesena, situated at the foot of a mountain, and washed by the river Savio, that often descends with a swoln and rapid stream from the Appenine.
v. 64. A man of arms.] Guido da Montefeltro.
v. 68. The high priest.] Boniface VIII.
v. 72. The nature of the lion than the fox.] Non furon leonine ma di volpe. So Pulci, Morg. Magg. c. xix.
E furon le sua opre e le sue colpe Non creder leonine ma di volpe.
