Nor, when the wretched Icarus in dismay

Felt the wax melting and the feathers fall,
His father crying, "Dangerous is thy way "-
Than I experienced, high upborne in air—
Air all around:-how did the void appal!-
For nought except the dreaded beast was there.
Onward by slow degrees he swam; and slow-
Wheeling-descended; unperceived by me,

Save that a vapour

fann'd me from below.

Now on the right I heard the vortex dread
Roaring beneath; whereat full eagerly

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I downward cast mine eye with out-stretch'd head. Still more was I dismay'd to view it near;

For flames were seen, and lamentations heard; Wherefore I gather'd up my limbs for fear: And by the woes which burst upon my sight From every side, now plainly first appear'd

The circling motion, and our downward flight.

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E'en as a falcon, long upheld in air,

Not seeing lure or bird upon the wing,

So that the falconer utters in despair,

"Alas, thou stoop'st!" fatigued descends from high; And whirling quickly round in many a ring,

Far from his master sits-disdainfully;

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With like disdain did Geryon place his freight
At foot of the disparted rock below;

Then feeling disencumber'd of our weight,
Swift darted off, like arrow from a bow.

NOTES.

Page 148. (Line 1.) Geryon-the symbol of Fraud. He was an ancient king of Spain, feigned by the poet to have three bodies, from having dominion over three islands, Majorca, Minorca, and Ivica. He is said to have been a most crafty person, and was slain by Hercules. (2.) "Aurum per medios ire satellites, Et perrumpere amat saxa, potentius Ictu fulmineo."-Horace, book iii. ode 16. (10.) “O what a goodly outside falsehood hath!"—Merchant of Venice, Act. 1, Scene 3. "The picture of Fraud is exactly delineated: Fraud first makes attack by assuming the mien of an honest man, disarming his victim, and winning his confidence. He then either uses his arms and employs force, or involves him in endless devices and knotty intrigues. At last comes the tail, hitherto concealed, from which he puts forth his poisonous sting."-Rossetti. The likeness of a beast to a man is taken from Daniel, where speaking of the Little Horn (generally acknowledged to mean the Papal power) he says, “In this Horn were eyes like the eyes of a man," cap. vii. 8, " to denote," says Bp. Newton, " his cunning and foresight."

Page 150. (Line 56.) The purses of each were emblazoned with their armorial bearings; and to this their eyes were

fondly directed. (59.) The arms of the Gianfigliazzi, a distinguished family of Florence.

Page 151. (Line 63.) The arms of the Ubbriachi. (65.) The arms of the Scrovigni.—The speaker is Rinaldo Scrovigni who lived at Padua, and says that his neighbour Vitaliano, a greater usurer than himself, should shortly sit next him. He adds, that the Florentines around him were expecting the arrival of Giovanni Bujamonte, an usurer of Florence, the most infamous of his time, and whose coming they anticipated with ironical exclamations. (81.) "Nunc animis opus, Ænea, nunc pectore firmo." Virgil. Æn. vi. 261.

Page 152. (Line 108.) From the accident of Phaton, the charioteer of the Sun, when," Mentis inops gelidâ formidine lora remisit, (Ovid. Met. ii. 200) a fabulous story arose that the heavens had taken fire, and that what we call the milky way was the effect of the conflagration. Thus Shakspeare Henry VI. 3d pt., Act. ii, sc. 6—

"O Phæbus, hadst thou never given consent
That Phaeton should check thy fiery steeds,

Thy burning car had never scorch'd the earth."

Page 153. (Line 127.) "Dante must have loved hawking. He paints his birds to the life."-Ugo Foscolo, Edinb. Rev. No. 58, Art. Dante. He frequently introduces the same idea. (See Purg. xix. 64; Par. xix. 34.) Milton seems to have had Dante in his mind when he describes Satan

"Coasting the wall of heaven on this side night,

In the dun air sublime, and ready now

To stoop with weary wings, and willing feet,

On the bare outside of this world."-Par. Lost, iii. 69.

CANTO XVIII.

ARGUMENT.

DESCRIPTION of the eighth circle, divided into ten gulfs. This canto treats only of the two first, in which are punished those who have been guilty of seduction and flattery. The first are scourged by demons; the second immersed in filth.

THERE is in hell a place, stone-built throughout,

Call'd Malebolgë—of an iron hue,

Like to the wall that circles it about.
Full in the middle of this land of pain

Yawns a deep gulf, of ample size to view,
Whose form in proper place will I explain.

The circling boundary that remains beside,
"Twixt the rock's basis and the gulf profound,
Ten bastions to its lowest depth divide.

As is the form presented to the eye
By fortresses, whose massive walls around

Run numerous trenches for security;

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Such was the semblance which these dykes display'd:
And from the threshold of such castles strong,
As bridges to the outer bank are laid;

So from the rock's low base did piers extend
That cross'd the moles and vallies all along,
Far as the ample gulf in which they end.
Here was it, that, released from Geryon's back,
We found ourselves; and then the poet drew
On tow'rds the left, and I pursued his track.
Upon the right new punishments I meet,

New pains, and ministers of vengeance new,
With which the first compartment was replete.

Down in the gulf were naked souls descried;

Some from the middle were advancing-some
Were journeying with us, but with greater stride.

So o'er the bridge, the concourse to convey,
Which flocks, the year of Jubilee, to Rome,

Means are devised to form a double

way,

That on the one side, all may keep in front

The castle, to St, Peter's as they throng,-
All on the other journey to the Mount.
Now here, now there, upon the ramparts high

I saw horn'd demons, who with many a thong
Lash'd these poor souls behind most cruelly.

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