Sent forth a blast that melancholy realm,
Which flashing a vermillion light around,
At once did all my senses overwhelm ;
And down I sank like one in slumber bound.

133

NOTES.

Page 23. (Lines 4-6.) The three Persons of the Trinity are said to be here represented.

Page 24. (Line 22.) "Res altâ terrâ et caligine mersas." Virg. Æn. vi. 267. (22.) In this passage Dante has united all the power of language to describe the misery of the damned. (31.) The reading of "orror" instead of "error" is found in various MSS., (see Niccolini, &c., Florence, 1837,) and also in several editions. That of the Editio princeps, in the British Museum, has been altered in writing into "error." It is adopted by Boccacio in his comment, and by Panizzi in his valuable edition of Bojardo. The first translator of Dante, Charles Rogers, (whose scarce work is to be found in the British Museum,) has "horror; and Mr. Cary appears by the following note to have intended to receive it into his text. "Instead of error Vellutello's edition of 1544 has orror, a reading remarked also by Landino in his notes. So much mistaken is the collator of the Monte Casino MS. in calling it "a reading which no one has observed." The translator has dwelt the more upon this passage, because an influential critic some years ago misled the public as to the true reading, by declaring

that the translator (whose authorities were unnoticed,) had "blundered error into horror."

Page 25. (Line 37.) "Dante, in a manner peculiarly his own, puts these wretches in the outskirts of hell, as unworthy alike of punishment and of mercy, and so despicable that they eannot be received into Paradise or Hell.”—Panizzi. Romantic Poetry of the Italians. (42.) Of“ niuna" in the sense of " alcuna" see Monti. Proposta. Vol. i. p. 2. (46.) “The damned perishing souls shall wish for death with a desire as impatient as their calamity. But this shall be denied them, because death were a deliverance, a mercy, and a pleasure, of which these miserable persons must despair for ever."-Jeremy Taylor. Serm. 19. (51.) "Therefore eternal silence be their doom."-Paradise Lost, vi. 385.. (52.) This banner is the emblem of mankind, busy and restless in one unvaried round of pleasure, or of toil in the pursuit of trifles-neutrals with respect to God-i.e. not taking any part for or against him. The immense multitude Dante describes of this class is an awful consideration. (60.) Celestine V., who from a hermit was suddenly made Pope. Cardinal Gaëtano, afterwards Boniface VIII., persuaded him to abdicate; and having obtained the Popedom himself, seized the innocent old man, and immured him in a tower, where he died in 1302. He was canonized by Clement V. in 1313. Of Boniface, see canto vi. 60; xix. 56; and xxvii. 105.

Page 26. (Line 63.) “Can greater degradation be conceived? The meanest person alive does not think himself fit to be despised."-Jeremy Taylor, Sermon xxi. (83.) Charon, the ferryman of Acheron. See Virgil. En. vi. 298. But Shakspeare more resembles Dante here

"I passed, methought, the melancholy flood

With that grim ferryman which poets write of
Unto the kingdom of perpetual night."

Rich. III. act i. sc. 4.

(73.) "Quid vult concursus ad amnem; Quidve petunt ani

mæ ?"-En. vi. 318.

Page 27. (Line 87.) Hence Milton,

"Extremes by change more fierce

From beds of raging fire to starve in ice

Their soft ethereal warmth."-Par. Lost. ii. 597.”

(93.) i.e. That by which good spirits pass on to Purgatory-a bark swift and light, under the guidance of an Angel. See Purg, ii. 40. "Corpora viva nefas Stygiâ vectare carinâ.”—Æn. vi. 391. (95.) Hence, Milton, "What I will is fate."-Par. Lost. vii. 173. (98.) “ Οσσε δε οἱ πυρι λαμπετοωντι εικτην.”—Homer Π. Α. 104. "Stant lumina flamma."-" Oculis micat acribus ignis."Virgil. Æn. vi. 300; xii. 102. (114.) The reading of “ vede," in preference to that of "rende" is adopted by Tasso, as moreenergetic and picturesque. And it seems supported by a passage in Virgil," Nec longum tempus, et ingens Exiit ad cœlum ramis felicibus arbos, Miraturque novas frondes, et non sua poma."-Georg. ii. 80. (121.) This is an answer to Dante's question, line 72. (126.) "Or let me die, to look on death no more."-Shakspeare. Richard III., scene 4.

.

CANTO IV.

ARGUMENT.

DANTE, roused from his swoon by the sound of lamentations, follows his guide into Limbo, the first circle of Hell. Here he finds the souls of those who, not having been baptized, dwell in a place of neither happiness, nor torment.

BROKE the deep slumber in my brain, a hoarse
And heavy thunder :-starting at the sound,
I shook me, like to one aroused by force;
And straightway rising, turn'd my rested eye,
With stedfast gaze, if haply, looking round,
The nature of the place I could descry.
Truly, beneath me lay the Vale of Woe,

In whose abyss eternal groans unite,

And blend their thunders in the depth below.

Obscure it was,—so cloudy-deep-and dense,

That though to pierce the gloom I strain'd my sight, Nought could I see within the gulf immense.

1

7

"Now go we down to dusky regions blind,"
The poet said, with visage deadly pale;
"I lead the way-do thou pursue behind."
Then I exclaim'd, of his pale looks aware,

"How shall I speed, if even thou dost quail,
Thou-who art wont to cheer me in despair ?"

He answer'd me: "The loud laments I hear

From those who are beneath us, on my face Pourtray that pity thou mistak'st for fear: But let us on-for we have far to go."

He led me then within that circle's space Which first encompasseth the Vale of Woe. No wailings there were audible ;—the sound Of sighs alone were heard-convulsive sighs, That made the eternal air to tremble round. Yet flow'd this sorrow from no actual pain; Beneath the weight of mental agonies,

13

19

25

Men-women-children sigh'd, a countless train. "Dost thou not wish," the master said, "to know 31 What spirits here their sad estate bewail?

This understand, ere thou proceed below ;—

They were not sinners; and if good they wrought,
For want of baptism, 'tis of no avail

A doctrine of the faith thou hast been taught: