who having an imperious wife, abandoned her, and followed wicked courses. (46.) The poet here speaks. He shews his respect towards these men for their patriotism, however sullied were their lives by great vices.

Page 142. (Line 61.) Bitter gall and sweet fruit, are Scriptural expressions to represent vice and virtue. The sweet fruit Dante beheld in the terrestrial Paradise. See Purg. xxvii. 115. (70.) Boccaccio terms Borsieri, another Florentine, a man of elegant manners and ready wit. (73.) Instead of giving a direct answer to the question of Rusticucci concerning Florence, he breaks out into an apostrophe to that city, as if she could hear his rebuke. "This is one of the many instances in which our poet mingles with stern justice of observation, a sentiment of plaintive tenderness for his own country."-Ugo Foscolo, No. 60, Edinb. Rev., Art. Dante. "Florence, and other small republics, after extirpating their nobles, were governed by merchants, who, having neither ancestors to imitate, nor generosity of sentiment, nor a military education, carried on their intestine feuds by calumny and confiscation." -Ibid. Parallel between Dante and Petrarch. (84.) Hence

Tasso. Jer. canto xv.

"Quando mi giovera narrare altrui

Le novita vedute, e dire, ío fui."

The anxiety of the spirits for the continuance of intercourse with the living, and the maintenance of their fame on earth pervades the poem. See vi. 89; xv. 119; xxix. 103.

Page 143. (Line 92.) The waters of Phlegethon. (94.) He compares the fall of Phlegethon to that of the Montone, a river in Romagna below the Apennines above the abbey of St. Benedict. "Ail the other streams that rise between the sources of the Po and the Montone, and fall from the left side

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of the Apennine, join the Po, and accompany it to the sea." -Lombardi. (102.) This appears to be an allusion to some friars in a convent there, who were few in number and very rich. (106.) The girdle in the Scriptures is the symbol of fortitude. Some have supposed that Dante in early life entered the order of St. Francis, and assumed the girdle; and this, they say, Dante was directed to throw down into the gulf, as a bait, to allure Geryon or Fraud to them, by leading him to suppose that a hypocrite was waiting to be conveyed to punishment.

Page 144. (Line 118.) Dante was at a loss to understand Virgil's object, and by his manner betrayed his anxiety. This want of confidence in his master, he is aware, is perceived by him; and, expecting a rebuke, he exclaims, "Alas!” &c. (124.) "Abstain from all appearance of evil.”—1 Thess. v. 22. (130.) The idea of swimming through the air is taken from Virgil: "Insuetum per iter gelidas enavit ad Arctos."-Æn. vi. 16.

CANTO XVII.

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THE monster Geryon, representing Fraud, is described. While Virgil is speaking to him, Dante proceeds to examine the fraudulent sinners and usurers in this third compartment. On his return they both descend into the eighth circle on the back of Geryon.

"BEHOLD the beast with sharpen'd tail acute,

Who pierces mountain, wall, and armed host;
Behold the beast who doth the world pollute:"
Me in these words my faithful guide bespake;
Then beckon'd him to land upon the coast,
And where the causeway ends, his station take.
Nor did Fraud's base and filthy image fail

To raise upon the bank his head and breast,
But on the shore he drew not forth his tail.

The features of an honest man he wore,
So outwardly benignant:-all the rest

The semblance of a wily serpent bore :

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Two branching arms he had all rough with hair;
And either flank, his back, and ample chest,
Emboss'd with knots and traced with circles were.
Not richer hues, embroider'd or inlaid

By Turks or Tartars, e'er adorn'd a vest ;
Nor such the gorgeous web Arachne made.
As oft light vessels stand upon the shore-

Part in the water, part upon the land ;-
And as, where dwells the greedy German boor,
The beaver sits, intent to watch his prey ;-

So on the edge of stone that fenced the sand,
Crouching-this execrable monster lay:
High o'er the void his tail through every joint
He vibrated; quick curling to and fro

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The scorpion fork which arm'd th' envenom'd point. Exclaim'd my sage conductor: "Now 'tis meet

To turn awhile, and on the margin go,

Until we reach that image of deceit."

We then descended, bearing to the right,

And walk'd ten paces onward o'er the strand,

To shun the flames and burning marle in sight.
Reaching the beast-a little distance thence

I view a party seated on the sand,
Near to the margin of the gulf immense.

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"That by experience thou may'st fully learn,

All that this round containeth," Virgil said,
"Go-and thyself their sad estate discern;
But have a care lest thou thy speech prolong ;-
I will entreat the beast to lend his aid,
And bear us down his shoulders strong."

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Alone I thus proceeded to the place,

Still coasting the seventh circle's boundary,
Where seated I beheld this woeful race.

Grief gushing through their eyes a passage found;
And each applied his hands alternately
Against the vapour and the torrid ground,-
Like dogs-who basking in the summer's heat,
When gadflies fierce and busy gnats torment,
Now frequent ply the mouth, and now the feet.
I gazed on many of these spirits grieved,

On whom the swift-descending flames were sent ;
But none of them I knew,-yet I perceived
That from the neck of each a purse was swung,
With certain sign and certain colour deck'd:
On that, it seem'd, their sight with fondness hung.
And when I came among them-looking round,

I saw a lion's semblance and aspect,

Painted in azure on a yellow ground.

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