I to my leader's side adhered, mine eyes
With fix'd and motionless observance bent
On their unkindly visage. They their hooks
Protruding, one the other thus bespake:
"Wilt thou I touch him on the hip?" To whom
Was answer'd: "Even so; nor miss thy aim."

But he, who was in conference with my guide, Turn'd rapid round; and thus the demon spake: "Stay, stay thee, Scarmiglione !" Then to us He added: "Farther footing to your step This rock affords not, shiver'd to the base Of the sixth arch. But would ye still proceed, Up by this cavern go: not distant far, Another rock will yield you passage safe. Yesterday,' later by five hours than now, Twelve hundred threescore years and six had fill'd The circuit of their course, since here the way Was broken. Thitherward I straight dispatch Certain of these my scouts, who shall espy If any on the surface bask. With them Go ye: for ye shall find them nothing fell. Come, Alichino, forth," with that he cried, "And Calcabrina, and Cagnazzo2 thou!

1 Yesterday.] This passage fixes the era of Dante's descent at Good Friday, in the year 1300, (34 years from our blessed Lord's incarnation being added to 1266,) and at the thirtyfifth year of our Poet's age. See Canto i. v. 1.

The awful event alluded to, the Evangelists inform us, happened "at the ninth hour," that is, our sixth, when "the rocks were rent," and the convulsion, according to Dante, was felt even in the depths of Hell. See Canto xii. v. 38.

2 Cagnazzo.] Pulci introduces some of these demons in a very pleasant adventure, related near the beginning of the second Canto of his Morgante Maggiore:

Non senti tu, Orlando, in quella tomba
Quelle parole, che colui rimbomba?
Io voglio andar a scoprir quello avello,
Là dove e' par che quella voce s'oda,
Ed escane Cagnazzo, e Farfarello,
O Libicocco, col suo Malacoda;
E finalmente s'accostava a quello,
Però che Orlando questa impresa loda,
E disse; scuopri, se vi fussi dentro
Quanti ne piovon mai dal ciel nel centro.

Stanze 30, 1.

"Perceivest the words, Orlando, which this fellow Doth in our ears out of that tomb rebellow?

"I'll go, and straight the sepulchre uncase,

From whence, as seems to me, that voice was heard;
Be Farfarel and Cagnazzo to my face,

Or Libicoc with Malacoda, stirr'd:"

For thereon is my mind alone intent."

[cheek

He straight replied: "That spirit, from whose
The beard sweeps o'er his shoulders brown, what time
Græcia was emptied of her males, that scarce
The cradles were supplied, the seer was he
In Aulis, who with Calchas gave the sign
When first to cut the cable. Him they named
Eurypilus: so sings my tragic strain,1

In which majestic measure well thou know'st,
Who know'st it all. That other, round the loins
So slender of his shape, was Michael Scot,2

1 So sings my tragic strain.]

Suspensi Eurypilum scitatum oracula Phobi
Virg. Æneid., ii. 14.

Mittimus.

2 Michael Scot.] "Egli non ha ancora guari, che in questa città fu un gran maestro in negromanzia, il quale ebbe nome Michele Scotto, perciò che di Scozia era." Boccaccio, Dec. Giorn., viii. nov. 9.

"It is not long since there was in this city (Florence) a great master in necromancy, who was called Michele Scotto, because he was from Scotland." See also Giov. Villani, Hist., lib. x. cap. cv. and cxli. and lib. xii. cap. xviii., and Fazio degli Uberti, Dittamondo, 1. ii. cap. xxvii.

I make no apology for adding the following curious particulars extracted from the notes to Mr. Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel, a poem in which a happy use is made of the superstitions relating to the subject of this note. "Sir Michael Scott, of Balwearie, flourished during the thirteenth century, and was one of the ambassadors sent to bring the Maid of Norway to Scotland upon the death of Alexander III. He was a man of much learning, chiefly acquired in foreign countries. He wrote a commentary upon Aristotle, printed at Venice in 1496, and several treatises upon natural philosophy, from which he appears to have been addicted to the abstruse studies of judicial astrology, alchymy, physiognomy, and chiromancy. Hence he passed among his contemporaries for a skilful magician. Dempster informs us, that he remembers to have heard in his youth, that the magic books of Michael Scott were still in existence, but could not be opened without danger, on account of the fiends who were thereby invoked. Dempsteri Historia Ecclesiastica, 1627, lib. xii. p. 495. Leslie characterizes Michael Scott as 'Singulari philosophiæ astronomiæ ac medicinæ laude præstans, dicebatur penitissimos magiæ recessus indagasse.' A personage thus spoken of by biographers and historians loses little of his mystical fame in vulgar tradition. Accordingly, the memory of Sir Michael Scott survives in many a legend; and in the south of Scotland any work of great labor and antiquity is ascribed either to the agency of Auld Michael, of Sir William Wallace, or of the devil. Tradition varies concerning the place of his burial: some contend for Holme Coltrame in Cumberland, others for Melrose Abbey: but all agree that his books of magic were interred in his grave, or preserved in the convent where he died." The Lay of the Last Minstrel, by Walter Scott, Esq., Lond. 4to. 1805, p. 234,

notes.