effects which Mercury produces upon us
in the world below, for which honour
and blame are given to the planet; for
as Albumasar says in the introduction to
his seventh treatise, ninth division, where
he treats of the nature of the planets and
of their properties, Mercury signifies
these twenty-two things among others,
namely, desire of knowledge and of seeing
secret things; interpretation of the Deity,
of oracles and prophecies; foreknowledge
of things future; knowledge and pro-
fundity of knowledge in profound books;
study of wisdom; memory of stories and
tales; eloquence with polish of language;
subtilty of genius; desire of lordship;
appetite of praise and fame; colour and
subtilty of speech; subtilty of genius in
everything to which man betakes him-
self; desire of perfection; cunning of
hand in all arts; practice of trade; selling,
buying, giving, receiving, stealing, cheat-
ing; concealing thoughts in the mind;
change of habits; youthfulness, lust,
abundance, murmurs, lies, false testimony,
and many other things as being therein
contained. And therefore our author
feigns, that those who have been active
in the world, and have lived with politi-
cal and moral virtues, show themselves
in the sphere of Mercury, because Mer-
cury exercises such influence, according
to the astrologers, as has been shown;
but it is in man's free will to follow the
good influence and avoid the bad, and
hence springs the merit and demerit."
Milton, Lycidas, 70 :—

44 Fame is the spur
that the clear spirit doth raise,
(That last infirmity of noble mind,)
To scorn delights, and live laborious days;
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find,
And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
Comes the blind Fury with the abhorréd shears
And slits the thin-spun life. 'But not the
praise,'

Phœbus replied, and touched my trembling

ears:

'Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,
Nor in the glistering foil

Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies;
But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes,
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove:
As he pronounces lastly on each deed,
Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed.

121. Piccarda, Canto III. 70, says:"Brother, our will is quieted by virtue

Of charity, that makes us wish alone

621

story of Romeo (in Italian Roméo) as 128. Villani, VI. Ch. 90, relates the follows, though it will be observed that he uses the word romeo not as a proper, but as a common noun, in its sense of pilgrim: "There arrived at his court a pilgrim, who was returning from St. James; and hearing of the goodness of Count Raymond, he tarried in his court, and was so wise and worthy, and found such favour with the Count, that he made him master and director of all things. He was always clad in a decent and clerical habit, and in a short time, by his dexterity and wisdom, increased the income of his lord threefold, maintaining always a grand and honourable court.

and no son. By the wisdom and address Four daughters had the Count, of the good pilgrim, he first married the eldest to the good King Louis of France by means of money, saying to the Count, Let me manage this, and do not be troubled at the cost; for if thou marry the first well, on account of this relationship thou wilt marry all the others better, and at less cost.'

pass; for straightway the King of EngAnd so it came to land, in order to be brother-in-law of the King of France, took the second for a small sum of money; then his brother, being elected King of the Romans, took the third; and the fourth still remaining to be married, the good pilgrim said,

With this one I want thee to have a brave son, who shall be thy heir;' and so he did. Finding Charles, Count of he said, 'Give her to this man, for he Anjou, brother of King Louis of France, will be the best man in the world;' prophesying concerning him, and so it was done. Then it came to pass through envy, which spoils every good thing, that pilgrim of having badly managed the the barons of Provence accused the good treasury of the Count, and had him said: 'Count, I have served thee a long called to a reckoning. The noble pilgrim time, and brought thee from low to high estate, and for this, through false counsel of thy folk, thou art little grateful. I have lived modestly on thy bounty. came to thy court a poor pilgrim, and Have my mule and my staff and scrip

For what we have, nor gives us thirst for given back to me as when I came, and I

more."

"

ask no further wages.' The Count

TT:

might not appear outwardly, as Statius the poet relates of Theban (Edipus, when he says, that in eternal night he hid his shame accursed. She shows herself in the mouth, as colour behind glass. And what is laughter but a coruscation of the delight of the soul, that is, a light appearing outwardly, as it exists within? And therefore it behoveth man to show his soul in moderate joy, to laugh moderately with dignified severity, and with slight motion of the arms; so that the Lady who then shows herself, as has been said, may appear modest, and not dissolute. Hence the Book of the Four Cardinal Virtues commands us, 'Let thy laughter be without cachinnation, that is to say, without cackling like a hen.' Ah, wonderful laughter of my Lady, that never was perceived but by the eye!"

20. Referring back to Canto VI.

5. By Substance is here meant spirit," or angel; the word having the sense of Subsistence. See Canto XIII. Note 58.

7. The rapidity of the motion of the flying spirits is beautifully expressed in these lines.

10. Namely, the doubt in his mind. 14. Bice, or Beatrice.

Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat."

36. Sincere in the sense of pure.

65 Plato, Timæus, Davis's Tr., X. : "Let us declare then on what account the framing Artificer settled the formation of this universe. He was good; and in the good envy is never engendered about anything whatever. Hence, being free from this, he desired that all things should as much as possible resemble himself."

17. Convito, III. 8: "And in these
two places I say these pleasures appear,
saying, In her eyes and in her sweet
smile; which two places by a beautiful
similitude may be called balconies of
the Lady who inhabits the edifice of
the body, that is, the Soul; since here,
although as if veiled, she often shows
herself. She shows herself in the eyes
so manifestly, that he who looks care-
fully can recognize her present passion. And again, VIII. 491 :—
Hence, inasmuch as six passions are
peculiar to the human soul, of which
the Philosopher makes mention in his
Rhetoric, that is, grace, zeal, mercy,
envy, love, and shame, with none of
these can the Soul be impassioned, with-
out its semblance coming to the window
of the eyes, unless it be kept within by
great effort.
Hence one of old plucked
Qut his eyes, so that his inward shame

Also Milton, Par. Lost, I. 259:-
"The Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy.'"

"Thou hast fulfilled
Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign,
Giver of all things fair! but fairest this
Of all thy gifts! nor enviest."

67. Dante here discriminates between the direct or immediate inspirations of God, and those influences that come indirectly through the stars. In the Convito, VII. 3, he says. "The good

NOTES TO PARADISO.

ness of God is received in one manner by disembodied substances, that is, by the Angels (who are without material grossness, and as it were diaphanous on account of the purity of their form), and in another manner by the human soul, which, though in one part it is free from matter, in another is impeded by it; (as a man who is wholly in the water, except his head, of whom it cannot be said he is wholly in the water nor wholly out of it;) and in another manner by the animals, whose soul is all absorbed in matter, but somewhat ennobled ; and in another manner by the metals, and in another by the earth; because it is the most material, and therefore the most remote from and the most inappropriate for the first most simple and noble virtue, which is solely intellectual, that is, God."

And in Canto XXIX. 136 :—

"The primal light, that all irradiates,

CANTO VIII.

1. The ascent to the Third Heaven,
or that of Venus, where are seen the

spirits of Lovers. Of this Heaven Dante
says, Convito, II. 14:—

"The Heaven of Venus may be com. pared to Rhetoric for two properties; the first is the brightness of its aspect, which is most sweet to look upon, more than any other star; the second is its the evening. And these two properties appearance, now in the morning, now in are in Rhetoric, the sweetest of all the sciences, for that is principally its inten

tion.

It appears in the morning when the rhetorician speaks before the face of his audience; it appears in the evening, that is, retrograde, when the letter in part remote speaks for the rhetorician."

For the influences of Venus, see Canto IX. Note 33.

2. In the days of "the false and lying gods," when the world was in peril of By modes as many is received therein, Cypria, or As are the splendours wherewith it is mated." damnation for misbelief. 76. Convito, VII. 3: "Between the Cyprigna, was a title of Venus, from the angelic nature, which is an intellec-place of her birth, Cyprus. tual thing, and the human soul there is no step, but they are both almost continuous in the order of gradation.. Thus we are to suppose and firmly to believe, that a man may be so noble, and of such lofty condition, that he shall be almost an angel."

130. The Angels, and the Heavens, and the human soul, being immediately inspired by God, are immutable and indestructible. But the elements and the souls of brutes and plants are controlled by the stars, and are mutable and perish

able.

142. See Purg. XVI. 85 :'Forth from the hand of Him, who fondles it Before it is, like to a little girl Weeping and laughing in her childish sport, Issues the simple soul, that nothing knows, Save that, proceeding from a joyous Maker, Gladly it turns to that which gives it plca

sure.

And also Purg. XXV. 70:

"The primal Motor turns to it well pleased
At so great art of nature, and inspires
A spirit new with virtue all replete."

3. The third Epicycle, or that of Venus, the third planet, was its supposed motion from west to east, while the whole heavens were swept onward from east to west by the motion of the Primum Mobile.

66

In the Convito, II. 4, Dante says: Upon the back of this circle (the Equatorial) in the Heaven of Venus, of which we are now treating, is a little sphere, which revolves of itself in this heaven, and whose orbit the astrologers call Epicycle." And again, II. 7: “ All this heaven moves and revolves with its Epicycle from east to west, once every natural day; but whether this movement be by any Intelligence, or by the sweep of the Primum Mobile, God knoweth; in me it would be presumptuous to judge.'

Milton, Par. Lost, VIII. 72:

"From man or angel the great Architect
Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge
His secrets to be scanned by them who ought
Rather admire; or, if they list to try
Conjecture, He his fabric of the heavens
Hath left to their disputes; perhaps to move
His laughter at their quaint opinions wide
Hereafter, when they come to model heaven
And calculate the stars; how they will wield

The mighty frame: how build, unbuild, contrive,
To save appearances; how gird the sphere
With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er,
Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb."

See also Nichol, Solar System, p. 7:
"Nothing in later times ought to ob-
scure the glory of Hipparchus, and, as
some think, the still greater Ptolemy.
Amid the bewilderment of these plane-
tary motions, what could they say, ex-
cept that the gods never act without
design; and thereon resolve to discern
it? The motion of the Earth was con-
cealed from them: nor was aught intel-
ligible or explicable concerning the
wanderings of the planets, except the
grand revolution of the sky around the
Earth. That Earth, small to us, they
therefore, on the ground of phenomena,
considered the centre of the Universe,
thinking, perhaps, not more confinedly
than persons in repute in modern days,
Around that centre all motion seemed
to pass in order the most regular; and
if a few bodies appeared to interrupt the
regularity of that order, why not conceive
the existence of some arrangement by
which they might be reconciled with it?
It was a strange, but most ingenious
idea. They could not tell how, by any
simple system of circular and uniform
motion, the ascertained courses of the
planets, as directly observed, were to be
accounted for; but they made a most
artificial scheme, that still saved the im-
mobility of the Earth. Suppose a person
passing around a room holding a lamp,
and all the while turning on his heel.
If he turned round uniformly, there
would be no actual interruption of the
uniform circular motion both of the
carrier and the carried; but the light, as
seen by an observer in the interior, would
make strange gyrations. Unable to ac-
count otherwise for the irregularities of
the planets, they mounted them in this
manner, on small circles, whose centres
only revolved regularly around the Earth,
but which, during their revolutionary
motion, also revolved around their own
centres. Styling these cycles and epi-
cycles, the ancient learned men framed
that grand system of the Heavens con-
cerning which Ptolemy composed his
'Syntax.'

7. Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, III. 1 :

"This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy:

This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;
Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents."

9. Cupid in the semblance of Ascanius. Eneid, I. 718, Davidson's Tr.: She clings to him with her eyes, her whole soul, and sometimes fondles him in her lap, Dido not thinking what a powerful god is settling on her, hapless one. Meanwhile he, mindful of his Acidalian mother, begins insensibly to efface the memory of Sichæus, and with a living flame tries to prepossess her languid affections, and her heart, chilled by long disuse."

IO. Venus, with whose name this canto begins.

12. Brunetto Latini, Tresor, I. Ch. 3, says that Venus "always follows the sun, and is beautiful and gentle, and is called the Goddess of Love.

Dante says, it plays with or caresses the sun, "now behind and now in front." When it follows, it is Hesperus, the Evening Star; when it precedes, it is Phosphor, the Morning Star.

spirits, as well as their brightness, is in 21. The rapidity of the motion of the proportion to their vision of God. Compare Canto XIV. 40 :

:

"Its brightness is proportioned to the ardour,
The ardour to the vision; and the vision
Equals what grace it has above its worth."
23. Made visible by mist and cloud-
rack.

27. Their motion originates in the Primum Mobile, whose Regents, or Intelligences, are the Seraphim.

34. The Regents, or Intelligences, of Venus are the Principalities.

37. This is the first line of the first canzone in the Convito, and in his commentary upon it, II. 5, Dante says: "In the first place, then, be it known, that the movers of this heaven are substances separate from matter, that is, Intelligences, which the common people call Angels.' And farther on, II. 6: "It is reasonable to believe that the motors of the Heaven of the Moon are of the order of the Angels; and those of Mercury are the Archangels; and those of Venus are the Thrones." It

And Justinian, in Canto V. 133 :—
"Even as the sun, that doth conceal himself
By too much light, when heat has worn
away

The tempering influence of the vapours dense,
By greater rapture thus concealed itself

In its own radiance the figure saintly."

49. The spirit who speaks is Charles Martel of Hungary, the friend and benefactor of Dante. He was the eldest son of Charles the Lame (Charles II. of Naples) and of Mary of Hungary. He was born in 1272, and in 1291 married the "beautiful Clemence," daughter of Rudolph of Hapsburg, Emperor of GerHe died in 1295, at the age of twenty-three, to which he alludes in the

many.

words,

"The world possessed me

Short time below."

the giant Typhoeus, as struck by Jove's 70. Both Pindar and Ovid speak of thunderbolt, and lying buried under Etna. Virgil says it is Enceladus, a brother of Typhoeus. Charles Martel here gives the philosophical, not the poetical, cause of the murky atmosphere of the bay.

72. Through him from his grandfather Charles of Anjou, and his fatherin-law the Emperor Rudolph.

75. The Sicilian Vespers and revolt of Palermo, in 1282. Milman, Hist. festival on Easter Tuesday that a multiLatin Christ., VI. 155: "It was at a tude of the inhabitants of Palermo and the neighbourhood had thronged to a church, about half a mile out of the The religious service was over, the mertown, dedicated to the Holy Ghost. riment begun; tables were spread, the amusements of all sorts, games, dances under the trees, were going gaily on; when the harmony was suddenly interrupted and the joyousness chilled by the appearance of a body of French soldiery, under the pretext of keeping the peace. The French mingled familiarly with the people, paid court, not in the most respectful manner, to the women; the young men made sullen remonstrances, and told them to go their way. The Frenchmen began to draw together. 'These rebellious Paterins must have arms, or they would not venture on such insolence.' They began to search some of them for arms. The two parties were already glaring at each 61. The kingdom of Apulia in Au- other in angry hostility. At that mo sonia, or Lower Italy, embracing Bari ment the beautiful daughter of Roger on the Adriatic, Gaeta in the Terra di Mastrangelo, a maiden of exquisite loveLavoro on the Mediterranean, and Cro-liness and modesty, with her bridegroom, tona in Calabria; a region bounded on approached the church. A Frenchman,

58. That part of Provence, embracing Avignon, Aix, Arles, and Marseilles, of which his father was lord, and which he would have inherited had he lived. This is "the great dowry of Provence," which the daughter of Raymond Berenger brought to Charles of Anjou in marriage, and which is mentioned in Purg. XX. 61, as taking the sense of shame out of the blood of the Capets.