Page 41 of 240 CANTO III - Divine Comedy

CANTO III

v. 5. Power divine
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.] The three
persons of the blessed Trinity. v. 9. all hope abandoned.] Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate.
So Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. i. c. 8. st. 53.
Lascia pur della vita ogni speranza.

v. 29. Like to the sand.]

Unnumber'd as the sands

Of Barca or Cyrene's torrid soil

Levied to side with warring winds, and poise

Their lighter wings.

Milton, P. L. ii. 908.

v. 40. Lest th' accursed tribe.] Lest the rebellious angels should exult at seeing those who were neutral and therefore less guilty, condemned to the same punishment with themselves.

v. 50. A flag.]

All the grisly legions that troop

Under the sooty flag of Acheron

Milton. Comus.

v. 56. Who to base fear
Yielding, abjur'd his high estate.] This is
commonly understood of Celestine the Fifth, who abdicated the papal power in 1294. Venturi mentions a work written by Innocenzio Barcellini, of the Celestine order, and printed in Milan in 1701, In which an attempt is made to put a different interpretation on this passage.

v. 70. through the blear light.]
Lo fioco lume
So Filicaja, canz. vi. st. 12.
Qual fioco lume.

v. 77. An old man.]

Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat

Terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento

Canities inculta jacet; stant lumina flamma.

Virg. 7. Aen. Iib. vi. 2.

v. 82. In fierce heat and in ice.]
The delighted spirit

To bathe in fiery floods or to reside

In thrilling regions of thick ribbed ice.

Shakesp. Measure for Measure, a. iii.s.1.
Compare Milton, P. L. b. ii. 600.

v. 92. The livid lake.] Vada livida.
Virg. Aen. Iib. vi. 320

Totius ut Lacus putidaeque paludis

Lividissima, maximeque est profunda vorago.

Catullus. xviii. 10.

v. 102. With eyes of burning coal.]
His looks were dreadful, and his fiery eyes

Like two great beacons glared bright and wide.

Spenser. F.Q. b. vi. c. vii.st. 42

v. 104. As fall off the light of autumnal leaves.]
Quam multa in silvis autumul frigore primo

Lapsa cadunt folia.

Virg. Aen. lib. vi. 309
Compare Apoll. Rhod. lib. iv. 214.

		"However much we guard ourselves against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us. It is not so much the example of others we imitate, as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of ourselves in their words." Eric Hoffer