Page 220 of 240 CANTO XX - Divine Comedy

CANTO XX

v. 6. Wherein one shines.] The light of the sun, whence he supposes the other celestial bodies to derive their light

v. 8. The great sign.] The eagle, the Imperial ensign.

v. 34. Who.] David.

v. 39. He.] Trajan. See Purgatory, Canto X. 68.

v. 44. He next.] Hezekiah.

v. 50. 'The other following.] Constantine. There is no passage in which Dante's opinion of the evil; that had arisen from the mixture of the civil with the ecclesiastical power, is more unequivocally declared.

v. 57. William.] William II, king of Sicily, at the latter part of the twelfth century He was of the Norman line of sovereigns, and obtained the appellation of "the Good" and, as the poet says his loss was as much the subject of regret in his dominions, as the presence of Charles I of Anjou and Frederick of Arragon, was of sorrow and complaint.

v. 62. Trojan Ripheus.]
Ripheus, justissimus unus
Qui fuit in Teneris, et servantissimus aequi. Virg. Aen. 1. ii. 4--.

v. 97. This.] Ripheus.

v. 98. That.] Trajan.

v. 103. The prayers,] The prayers of St. Gregory

v. 119. The three nymphs.] Faith, Hope, and Charity. Purgatory, Canto XXIX. 116.
v. 138. The pair.] Ripheus and Trajan.

		"She has lost the art of conversation, but not, unfortunately, the power of speech." George Bernard Shaw